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WONDER LEGENDS 


OF 


NORSE-LAND 


y 

By MARA Lj PRATT CHADWICK 
Author of “Story of Columbus” 



Fully Illustrated 


JOLLY JUNIOR BOOKS 


ALBERt’VwHITMAN 
& 5 CO 


CHICAGO 






TZs 

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,C 34& 

WoTV 


Previously Printed as 
LEGENDS OF NORSELAND 
Printed 1931 by Albert Whitman & Co. 
Chicago, U. S. A. 


-(Vx .’M • 


Printed in the U. S. A. 


* + 
• € « 
% 


HAR 28 1932 


CONTTKNTS 


Page 

The Beginning. 7 

Ygdrasil. 12 

Oclin at the Well of Wisdom.17 

Odin and the All-wise Giant. 22 

The Stolen Wine. Part I.„ 23 

The Stolen Wine. Part II.. 36 

Poke’s Theft.46 

Thor’s Hammer. 53 

The Binding of the Hammer.76 

The Apples of Life. 'Part 1. 84 

The Apples of Life. Part II..97 

Poke’s Wolf. 105 

The Fenris-wolf.114 

Defeat of Hrungner. 121 

Thor and Skrymer.132 

Thor and the Utgard-King.. . 143 

Thor and the Midgard Serpent ... ... 155 

Valkyries’ Song. 165 

The Dying Baldur.167 

The Punishment of Loke .... ... 178 

The Darkness that fell on Asgard. 185 





























THE THREE SISTERS AT THE FOOT OF THE WONDERFUL TREE OF LIFE 












I. 

In the beginning, when the beautiful and 
sunny world was first made, there stood, in 
the very midst of all its beauty, Mt. Ida — a 
mountain so high, so far away up among the 
snowy clouds, that its summit was lost in the 
shining light of the rays of the sun. 

At its base, stretching away to the north, 
the south, the east, and the west, as far as 


7 





8 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


even the eyes of the gods could reach, lay the 
soft, green valleys and the great, broad plain 
beyond. Encircling the whole great plain, 
and curling lovingly around in all the little 
bends and bays of the distant shore, lay the 
deep blue waters; and beyond the waters, 
hidden in the distant mists, rose the great 
mountains in which the frost giants dwelt. 

On the top of Mt. Ida, the gods had built 
their shining city, Asgard ; and from its golden 
gateway to the valley below was stretched the 
richly-colored, rainbow bridge, with its won¬ 
derful bars of red and yellow and blue, orange 
and green, indigo and purple. 

And in this shining city, where the gods 
dwelt, there was no sorrow, no grief, no pain 
of any kind. Never was the sun’s light shut 
off by heavy clouds ; never did the cruel light¬ 
nings flash, nor came their blights upon the 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


9 


harvest fields ; never did the heavy rains fall, 
nor did the cold winds sweep down upon this 
shining city. 

But alas, there came a time when a 
shadow fell upon this city that shone so like a 
golden cloud resting upon the mountain peak. 
For the Fates, the three cruel sisters, came 
and took up their abode at the foot of the 
wonderful tree of Life, whose roots were in 
the earth, and whose branches, reaching high 
above the shining city, protected it from the 
suns fierce heat and strong white light. And 
from that time even the gods themselves 
were no longer free from care and sorrow. 

Envy sprang up among the children of 
the great god, Odin; sickness, and even death, 
fell upon them; and the frost giants waged war 
with them,—a war that would never cease in all 
the ages that were to come, until that day when 


10 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


the suns light went out forever, and the dark 
reign of Ragnarok fell upon the earth. 

It was a beautiful earth that lay stretched 
out at the foot of Mt. Ida. The fields were 
rich with grain; the trees were loaded with 
fruits; the sun shone warm and bright; but there 
were no harvesters, no gatherers of the fruit, 
no children to run and frolic in the sunshine. 

“ The fair earth is desolate,” said Odin to 
himself, as he looked down from his golden 
temple. “ There should be people there, not 
gods and goddesses like us here upon Mt. Ida, 
but beings less powerful than we, beings who 
can love and enjoy, and whose children shall 
fill the earth with their happy voices. And 
the care of all these beings shall be mine.” 

As he spoke, he, the All Father, passed 
down the rainbow bridge, out into the rich, 
green valley below. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


11 


As he passed on beneath the trees, he 
saw standing together, their branches bending 
towards each other, a straight, strong Ash and 
a gentle, graceful Elm. 

“ From these trees,” said Odin to himself, 
“ will I create the Earth people. The man I 
will name Ask, and the woman, Embla. It is 
a beautiful, sunny world: they should be very 
happy in it. How their children shall delight 
in the broad fields and the sunny slopes! 
And no harm shall come to them; for I, the 
All Father, will watch over them in all the 
ages to come.” 





12 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



II. 

YGDRASIL. 

At the base of Mt. Ida stood Ygdrasil, 
the wonderful tree of Life. Never before nor 
since was there another such a tree. It had 
never had a beginning; it had never been 
young. 

Not even the oldest man, not even the 
gods themselves could say, “ I remember when 
this great tree was a tender sapling, I remem* 







LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


13 


ber when it sent forth its first tiny leaves, and 
how it rocked, and swayed, and shivered, and 
bent its timid head as the cold ice king swept 
over it.” 

For there had never been a time since the 
beginning of the world when Ygdrasil had not 
stood there, tall and strong, one great root 
reaching down, down through the earth to 
the home of the dead, another stretching away, 
no one could tell how far, till it reached the 
home of the terrible giants, so fierce and cruel, 
so strong, and withal so wise, that even the 
gods themselves dreaded them and stood ever 
in terror of their approach. 

And its branches ? So broad, so far 
reaching, so numerous were these, that they 
spread themselves protectingly over the whole 
earth, their top-most leaves rustling and whis¬ 
pering together above the golden palace of the 


14 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


gods, far up on the summit of the cloud- 
hidden Ida. 

Nor was this all. Hidden among the 
dense leaves lived a great white eagle. No 
one knew whence he came; no one had ever 
looked upon him ; but there he sat, ages upon 
ages, singing forever the story of the creator 
of the earth and the wonderful deeds of the 
gods who dwell in the shining city of Asgard. 
The leaves of the tree sang sunset songs, and 
whispered to each other secrets, sometimes 
sad, sometimes gay, which even the gods, with 
all their wisdom, could not understand. 

At the foot of the tree, away down at the 
end even of the deepest, farthest root, lay the 
Well of Wisdom. Its waters were black. 
Sometimes they were very bitter, and few 
there were who had the courage and the perse¬ 
verance to search out the hiding-place of this 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


15 


wonderful spring. Then, too, it was guarded 
by a grim old giant, Memory, who so loved 
this well, and so dreaded the approach of man 
or god to its waters, that he would not allow 
them even to touch their lips to it, until they 
had sworn to surrender to him whatever thing 
was dearest in life to them. 

This was a heavy price to pay for 
wisdom, and few there were who cared to pay 
it. “ Will you give me your children ?'” “Will 
you give me your freedom?” “Will you give 
me your health?” “Will you give me your 
tongue, your ears, your eyes?” the old giant 
would ask of the mortals who came to drink 
of the waters of the Well of Wisdom. 

And always, when the mortals heard 
these questions, they grew pale and trembled 
with fear. “ Go back to your homes,” the old 
giant would thunder, “you desire wisdom it 


16 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


is true; but you are not willing to pay the 
price for it.” Then the mortals would hurry 
away, their hearts beating with fear, their ears 
ringing with the thunderous tones of the 
terrible giant, who, since the earth was made, 
had sat at the foot of Ygdrasil guarding the 
secrets from all the world. 




LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


17 



ODIN, THE " ALL FATHER.” 

III. 

ODIN AT THE WELL OF WISDOM. 

As Odin looked down from his home in 
Asgard and saw the people he had made from 
the ash and the elm trees, he sighed to 
himself and said, “ These are my children. It 
is I who created them. They are innocent 
and pure and sweet.” 
















18 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ But, alas, how little they know of life. 
By and by there will come to them danger 
and sorrow. The Ice King, the cruel tyrant, 
will breathe upon them, and the harvests will 
shrivel before their eyes; the rivers will be 
frozen, the trees will be bare, and there will be 
no food for them. As the years roll on, little 
children will come; these children will grow 
into manhood and womanhood, and other little 
children will follow. They are but mortals. 
Sickness and death will be their share; for I 
could not make them like the gods.” 

And as Odin thought of all these things 
his heart grew sad. Almost he wished he 
had not made these helpless beings from the 
ash and the elm. He looked down into the 
sunny valley, where as yet no sorrow nor 
suffering had come. “Poor children!” he 
sighed. “ What a world of wisdom Odin 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


19 


must possess to protect and guide and teach 
these earth-people that he has made.” 

Just then Ask and Embla paused and 
looked up towards the shining city; for the 
sigh from Odin’s heart had been so deep and 
long that the leaves of Ygdrasil had rustled, 
and a faint echo of it had swept even across 
the valley below. 

“ What is it that sweeps sometimes across 
the valley, and moves the trees and the leaves, 
and so gently fans our cheeks?” asked Embla. 

“ I often wonder,” answered Ask. “ It is 
very pleasant. Perhaps it is a message from 
the good Odin who made us and who gave us 
this sunny valley to play in.” 

Then on they ran, hand in hand, happy 
children as they were, and in a moment had 
forgotten all about it. 

But Odin had not forgotten. “ Frigg,” 


20 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


said he to his goddess wife, “ it is granted to 
us as gods to possess great wisdom. Still 
there remain many things we do not know. 
Below in the valley there have sprung into 
being a man and a woman. They are like us, 
Frigg, but they are not very wise. They need 
our care, even as our own dear Baldur needed 
our care when he was a very little child. I 
shall go to the Giant Memory, who guards the 
Well of Wisdom, and he shall give me a 
draught from the wonderful water. Then 
shall I be the all-wise, all-loving All-Father 
these children of the valley need.” 

“ O, but the price this cruel Giant will ask 
of you ! ” sobbed Frigg. 

“ I would give my life for them,” answered 
Odin tenderly. Then he turned from her, 
passed down the rainbow bridge to the valley, 
entered the great black, gaping cave and 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


21 


groped his way along the cold, dark passages 
that led to the Well of Wisdom. 

Three times the sun rose, three times the 
sun set. Then, just as the earth and the 
shining Asgard lay bathed in the rich, golden 
sunset light, Odin came forth again, passed up 
the rainbow bridge, and entered the great hall 
of the gods. “ It is Odin,” cried Frigg. 

Yes, it is Odin, the same Odin. But 
with a face so joyous, so radiant, so happy! 
For Odin had drank from the Well of Wis¬ 
dom. The way had been dark; the struggle 
with the great Giant had been hard. But 
Odin had conquered; and now the joy that 
belongs always to the wise was his forever¬ 



more. 





22 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



IV. 


ODIN AND THE ALL-WISE GIANT. 

Away across the great sea of blue waters 
that curled about the shores of Midgard, the 
dwelling place of Odin’s earth-children, were 
the dark, frowning, rock-bound mountains, the 
castles of the terrible giants whom even the 
gods feared. 




LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


23 


One of these giants, Vafthrudner, was 
known among them as the All-wise. 

“ He is our chief. He is wiser even than 
the gods of Asgard,” the giants sometimes 
would thunder across the wide blue sea. And 
indeed it was true; for none among the gods 
had yet been able to answer his questions; nor 
could they; neither could they ask of him one 
that he could not answer. 

“ We will bear the insolence of this giant 
no longer,” said Odin to Frigg. “ I will go 
to him, and the race of giants shall know that 
at last Wisdom dwells not in Jotunheim but 
in the golden city of the gods,— the glorious, 
shining city of Asgard.” 

“ Who comes ? ” thundered Vafthrudner 
as Odin approached his mountain peak. 

“It is I — a mere traveller. But as I 
chanced to be journeying through your coun- 


24 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


try, I heard of your wonderful wisdom. In 
my own country, far away to the west, I too 
am accounted somewhat wise. Let us test 
each other and learn which of us is wiser.” 

“ Test each other ! Learn which is wiser !” 
bellowed the great giant, his voice echoing 
and re-echoing across the sea, until the very 
walls of the golden hall upon Mt. Ida trembled 
and the earth-children in the valley below 
clung to each other in fear. 

“ Whichever one fails forfeits his life. 
You know that, I trust,” added Vafthrudner 
with a sneer. 

“ I know,” answered Odin quietly. “ But 
let us begin. Night will come upon us, and I 
must reach my home while the Sun-god is 
still above us.” 

“ You will never see your home again ; so 
it matters little whether we begin early or late. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


25 


However, tell me, foolish, vain earth-child 
that you are, what river is it that flows 
between this home of the All-powerful giants 
and the home of the gods ?” 

“ The name of that river is Ifing,” 

answered Odin. “ And I can tell you more 
than that. Because it touches upon the shores 
of the city of the gods, the Ice King, Njord, 
has no power over it. His breath cannot 
freeze it. Year after year, Njord tries to 
imprison its sparkling waters that you giants 
may cross upon its crust and attack the 

shining city. But it will never freeze. You 
will never cross it. Asgard is forever 

safe.” 

The giant dropped his mighty jaw. His 
eyes stared like great suns of fire. His 

terrible frame trembled. Down came his club 
upon the floor of his great castle. 


26 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Again Ask and Embla paled with fear as 
the valley shook beneath their feet. 

“ Who are you ? ” roared the All-wise 
giant. “ Who are you that you know that 
river’s name ? Who are you that you dare 
tell me I shall never cross to its farther 
shore ?” 

“ It matters little who I am,” answered 
Odin, his eyes flashing, his beautiful figure 
growing taller and taller. “ But listen now 
while I whisper into your ear my question.” 
And with a mighty stride Odin crossed to 
Vafthrudner’s throne, leaned forward, seized 
him by the shoulder, and hissed three words 
into the gigantic, cave-like ear. 

What those words were, no man ever 
knew. Forever they shall remain a secret 
between Vafthrudner and the All-Father Odin. 

The giant paled, staggered to his feet, 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


27 


groaned and fell. The walls of the great hall 
swayed to and fro. The lightning flashed, the 
thunder pealed from peak to peak. Odin had 
conquered. The All-Father was now the All- 
loving and the All-wise too. And as such, 
was ever after acknowledged by all living 
creatures,—gods and men, dwarfs and giants. 









28 


LEGENDS OF NORSE LAND. 



V. 

THE STOLEN WINE. 

Part I. 

There had lain for ages upon ages, 
hidden away in the great rocky cellar of one 
of the giant’s castles, a cask of wine, which 
had been stolen from the gods. 

Never before had the gods been able to 
learn what had become of it; what giant had 
stolen it, nor in what castle it was hidden. 

But now that Odin had become All-wise, 
nothing could be concealed from him. 

“ I know at last where the wine lies 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


29 


hidden,” said Odin one day to his son, Thor; 
“ and I shall set forth to find it.” 

Thor brought down his hammer with a 
thud. “ Let me go with you,” cried he, spring¬ 
ing up. “ And let me fell to the earth with 
one blow of my magic hammer the giant who 
has stolen, and has kept hidden all these ages 
our precious wine.” 

“ No; ” answered Odin, “ this time I must 
go alone. The wine is guarded day and night, 
and it will not be easy to bring it away, even 
when I have found it. But watch for me, 
dear son. One day there will come, beating 
its wings against the shining gates of our city, 
a great white eagle. Do not harm the eagle. 
Open the gates to him ; for that eagle will be 
Odin, returning with the stolen wine to our 
city of Asgard.” 

Then Odin put aside his sparkling crown 


30 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


and laid down his sceptre. His wonderful 
blue mantle, studded with stars and fastened 
always with a pale crescent moon, he also 
threw aside, and stepped forth in the garb of 
a common laborer. “ It is in this guise that I 
shall win my way to the giant’s castle,” said 
Odin; and in a second he had passed out from 
the hall and was gone. 

It was the giant, Suttung, that had stolen 
the wine, and it was in his castle that it had 
lain hidden all these years. 

Now, of all the strong castles of all the 
giants, Suttung’s castle was the strongest. 
The cellar was cut into the solid rock. More¬ 
over, three sides of the castle rose in solid walls 
of granite; while the fourth, no less firm and 
strong, was built of massive blocks bound 
with hoops and bars and bolts of strongest 
iron and steel. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


31 


Now, Suttung had a brother, Bauge, who 
was a giant farmer. He kept nine strong slaves, 
half giants themselves, to do his work for him. 

As Odin approached the fields of Bauge’s 
farm, he saw the nine men hard at work. 

“ Your scythes are dull,” said he, as he 
drew near. 

“Yes, but we have no whetstone to 
sharpen them upon,” answered the workmen, 
the great drops standing out upon their fore¬ 
heads. 

“ I will sharpen them on mine,” said Odin, 
drawing one from his pocket. 

“ It is a magic whetstone! ” cried the men 
as they saw it work. “ Give it to us. We 
need it more than you. Give it to us. Give 
it to us.” 

“ Take it, then,” answered Odin, throwing 
it high in the air and walking off. 


32 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ It is mine ! It is mine ! Let me have 
it! Give it to me! I will have it! Out of 
the way! It shall be mine! ” screamed and 
quarreled the nine men as they pushed and 
crowded, each one determined to catch the 
whetstone as it came down to earth. 

At last it fell. Then a fiercer battle fol¬ 
lowed. The angry men fell upon each other. 
They dragged and pulled and threw each other 
to the ground. They pounded each other; 
they struck at each other with their scythes. 
On and on they fought. Hour after hour the 
battle waged; till at last the Sun-god, in sheer 
dismay at so unloving a sight, hid his face 
behind the hills, and the nine men lay dead 
upon the fields. 

It was an hour later when Odin reached 
the castle of Pauge. 

“ Can you give me shelter for the night?” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


33 


he asked, as the giant appeared at the door of 
his castle. 

“Yes, I can give you shelter; but you 
must look elsewhere for your breakfast. A 
strange thing has happened. My nine slaves, 
while at work in the field, have fallen 
in battle upon each other, and have killed 
each other. Not one of them is left alive to 
serve me.” 

“ They must have been idle, quarrelsome 
fellows,” answered Odin. 

“They were, indeed,” answered Bauge; 
“ but how shall I get my work done without 
them ? ” 

“ I will do the work for you,” answered 
Odin. 

“ You ! There is but one of you, even if 
you were willing to try,” answered Bauge with 
but little interest. 


34 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAN1). 


“ But I can do the work of any nine 
workmen that ever served you.” 

The giant laughed. “ A remarkable work¬ 
man. Pray, do you ask the wages of nine 
men as well ? ” 

“I ask no wages,” answered Odin. “I 
only ask that, as my pay when the work is 
done, you shall give me a draught of wine 
from the cask hidden in your brother’s 
cellar.” 

Bauge stared. “ How did you know 
there is a cask in my brother’s cellar?” he 
gasped. 

“ It is enough that I know it,” answered 
Odin coldly. 

Bauge looked at Odin. “ He is better 
than no man,” he thought to himself. “ I may 
as well get what work from him I can, before 
he finds that no being on earth can enter that 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


35 


cellar or force my brother to give away one 
drop of that wine.” 

“ Very well, you may go to work,” he said 
aloud. “ I cannot promise you that we can 
make our way into my brother’s cellar; but I 
will do what I can to help you.” 

“That is all I ask,” answered Odin. 
“Now let me sleep, for I am tired; and if I 
am to do nine men’s work, I must have nine 
men’s sleep.” 

“ And must you have nine men’s food ? ” 
cried Bauge. 

“ I think it very likely,” answered Odin 
with a queer smile. “ Now let me sleep.” 






36 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



VI. 

THE STOLEN WINE. 

Part II. 

“What is your name?” asked Bauge of 
his new workman when they set forth the next 
morning to the fields. 

“ You may call me Bolverk,” answered 
Odin. 

“Will one name be enough for all nine of 
you ? ” said Bauge with a disagreeable curling 
of his upper lip. 

“ I will not burden your giant mind with 








LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


more than one,” Odin answered, — a funny 
little twinkle in his eye. 

The giant gave a furious grunt. He did 
not quite know whether his new workman was 
stupid, or, whether under all his seeming meek¬ 
ness, it might not be that he was making fun 
of him. 

Well, Bauge set Bolverk to work, and 
then, lazy fellow that he was, stretched himself 
out on a mountain side to watch. 

“ That new workman of mine,” he bel¬ 
lowed, calling the attention of a neighbor 
giant to Odin at work in the field ; “ do you 
see him down there among the corn ? He 
says he can do nine mens work.” 

“ A workman usually thinks himself equal 
to any nine other workingmen,” roared back 
the neighbor. “ Of course you have agreed to 
give him nine mens wages ? ” 


38 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Then the two giants roared with laughter. 
They thought they had said a very bright 
thing, and very likely they had. It is only 
because you and I are mere earth-children that 
we do not think so too. 

As the days went on, Bauge began to 
laugh less and to wonder more at his strange 
workman. He worked on quietly from sun¬ 
rise till sunset. He did not seem to hurry in 
his work; he did not work over hours. But, 
strange to say, the work went on, as the 
workman had promised. No nine men could 
have done more or could have done it better. 

It was harvest time when Odin came; 
the time when Frey, the god of the fields 
and of all that grows, glides around among his 
children and covers them over, or gathers in 
their wealth and beauty. Like the kind, 
loving father he is, he whispers to them now 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


39 


of Njord who so soon will come, sweeping 
across the earth, breathing his cold freezing 
breath upon all the world, and covering it over 
with the cold white sheet that kills the flowers 
and the fruits. He teaches his children to 
curl themselves up beneath the earth until the 
cruel Njord is gone. For Njord seeks to kill 
the tiny leaves and buds, and shrivel the 
radiant flowers, that, through all the long warm 
summer days, have lifted their faces so 
brightly to their good friend, the Sun-god. 

Perhaps it was because Frey and Odin 
worked together that there were such rare 
crops, and that the harvesting went on so 
smoothly. Certain it was that all the fields 
were cleared, the cellars were filled, and all 
was ready for the long, cold months to come, 
when cruel Njord was king. 

Even Bauge was in good humor. “ You 


40 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


are indeed a wonderful workman,” he said to 
Odin, as the last cellar was fastened and he sat 
down to rest. 

“ You are kind,” answered Odin, the 
funny little twinkle coming' again into his 
eyes. “ Perhaps you would be willing to come 
with me now to your brother, that I may drink 
from the cask of wine that he keeps so closely 
guarded in his cellar.” 

Bauge began to feel uncomfortable. “ He 
will not allow either you or me to so much as 
look upon that wine. You cannot have it.” 

“ Bauge,” said Odin, growing very tall 
and godlike, his wonderful eyes flashing with 
a light like fire, “ you promised to do all you 
could to help me. Come and do as I bid 
you.” 

Bauge stared. His first thought was to 
kill the workman on the spot: but there was a 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


41 


something about him, he hardly knew what, 
that made him, instead, rise and follow Odin 
to the brother’s castle. 

“Tell me which cellar holds the wine,” 
said Odin when they had reached the brother’s 
mountain. 

“ This one,” answered Bauge. 

“ Now take this augur. Make a hole 
with it through the solid wall.” 

Bauge obeyed like one in a dream. It 
was a magic augur. How it worked! How 
the powdered stone flew in a cloud about his 
face! 

“This is a very—” Bauge stopped. 
What had become of his workman? Not a 
soul was in sight. Odin had disappeared. 
And to this day the giant never knew what 
became of him, nor does his brother know 
who stole his wine from the cellar. 


42 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


The stupid Bauge stood staring, now at 
the augur, now at the hole in the wall. He 
saw a little worm climb up the wall and dis¬ 
appear through the hole. That is all he ever 
saw or ever knew. 

The little worm laughed to itself as it 
crept in out of sight. “ You are very stupid, 
Bauge, not to know me.” 

Reaching the inner 1 side of the wall, the 
little worm stopped to look about. There 
stood the cask; and beside it sat the daughter 
of the giant. “ Poor girl,” said Odin—I mean, 
said the worm — to himself. “It is a bitter 
fate to be doomed to sit forever in this 
wretched dungeon watching your father’s 
stolen treasure. But be happy. Soon you 
will be free. There will be no wine to watch.” 

The young giantess must have heard his 
words. For she looked up. There, just in 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


43 


front of the hole, the ray of light falling full 
upon his golden hair, stood a most beautiful 
youth. He looked so kindly upon her, and 
his eyes were so full of pity! 

Her heart went out to him at once. 

“ I am very tired,” said he gently. “ So 
very tired. I have come a long, long distance. 
My home is far from here. I cannot tell you 
how far — but very, very far. If you would 
give me just one draught from the cask of 
wine.” 

The poor girl, grateful for the sound of a 
friendly voice, and for the sight of a human 
face, arose and lifted the lid for him. 

Odin leaned over the cask. He put his 
lips to the wine and drank. 

“ You are very thirsty,” said the giantess. 

“ Very,” answered Odin, drinking on and 


on. 


44 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ You are very thirsty,” said the giantess 
again. 

“ Very,” answered Odin, still drinking on 
and on and on. 

“ You are very thirsty,” said the giantess 
again; this time louder, her voice filled with fear. 

“ Very,” answered Odin, still drinking on 
and on and on and on. Nor did he stop till 
every drop was gone and the cask stood dry 
and empty. 

The young giantess, realizing all too late 
that the wine was stolen, ran to the cellar 
gateway, shouting as only a giant can shout 
for help. 

The gateway flew open. In rushed the 
giants, Bauge and his brother. 

“ The wine ! the wine ! ” they cried. 

“ Stolen, stolen ! ” sobbed the giantess, her 
sobs shaking even the solid cellar walls. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


45 


“The thief! The thief!” cried the giants. 
“Where is the thief?” 

But there was no thief to be found. 
There stood the empty cask. But the thief? 
There was no living creature to be seen. 

No living creature? I should not have 
said quite that. For there arose from a 
darkened corner of the cellar a beautiful, great 
white bird. Its wings brushed against the 
sides of the gateway as it passed. Then 
higher and higher, up, up, far, far away beyond 
the sea, above the clouds it soared, nor rested 
till its great wings beat against the golden 
bars of the shining gates of Asgard. 







46 


LEGENDS OE NORSELAND. 



VII. 

LORE’S THEFT. 

Thor was the son of Odin. He was a 
brave young god; and when the frost giants 
came sweeping down upon the shining city, 
none were more brave to fight for the protec¬ 
tion of Asgard, the beautiful home of the gods, 
than Thor, the son of Odin. 

There was another son, Loke» A cruel, 
wicked, idle, evil-hearted god was he, the 
sorrow of his father Odin, the grief of his 







LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


47 


mother Frigg, and the terror of all the gods 
and goddesses. 

Over this son the great Odin wept often 
bitter tears. More bitter still since he had 
drunk from the Well of Wisdom; for since 
then knowing, as he did, all things past and 
future, he knew that a day was yet to come, 
when, because of this wicked Loke, the light 
would go out from the earth; damp and cold 
and darkness would fall upon the shining city; 
the frost giants would overcome the gods; 
and there would come an end to all life. Nor 
was there any escape nor hope for any help. 
This fate, the Norns had decreed should be; 
and through the evil-hearted Loke it was to 
come. 

In the golden hall of the gods dwelt 
Thor; and with him, his beautiful wife, Sif. 
Of all the goddesses there was none like her. 


48 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Her eyes were of heaven’s own blue; and the 
light in them was boriowed from the stars. 
Her hair was of yellow, yellow gold; and as it 
lay massed above her pure white brow, it vied 
with the golden light of harvest time in soft¬ 
ness and rich, deep color. 

One happy peaceful day, when there was 
no danger abroad, and rest and peace had 
spread themselves above the halls of the city 
of Asgard, Sif lay sleeping. The Sungod’s 
covering of soft warm rays fell upon her, and 
the leaves of Ygdrasil had spread themselves 
above her in tender, loving protection. 

Loke, the idle one, angry and revengeful, 
as he always was, when happiness and rest 
and peace had driven out sorrow and care, 
paced angrily up and down the golden streets, 
his deep black frowns darkening even the 
clear, white light of heaven. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


49 


He came upon the beautiful sleeping wife 
of Thor. 

“ I hate my brother,” he hissed through 
his cruel teeth. “ And how proud he is of this 
golden hair of Sifs.” 

The wicked light flashed from his deep 
black eyes. Softly, like a thief, he crept 
towards the sleeping Sif. He seized the 
golden hair in his hand. A cruel smile shone 
over his evil face. “ Boast now of your 
beauty, O Sif,” he sneered. “ Boast now of 
your Sifs golden hair, O Thor,” he growled. 
And with one great sweep of his shining knife, 
he cut from the beautiful head the whole mass 
of gold. 

It was late when Sif awoke. The leaves 
of Ygdrasil were moaning for the cruel deed. 
The Sun was sinking sorrowfully below the 
distant mountain peaks. 


50 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ O my gold ! my gold ! ” sobbed Sif. “ O 
who has stolen from me in my sleep my gold ? 
O Thor, Thor! You were so proud of the 
gold. It was for you I prized it,— my 
beautiful, beautiful gold! ” 

At that second the voice of Thor was 
heard. His heavy call echoed across the skies 
and pealed from cloud to cloud. He was 
angry; for he had heard Sif’s bitter cry and 
felt some harm had come to her. 

“ It is Loke that has done this,” he thun¬ 
dered ; and again his voice rolled from cloud 
to cloud. The very mountain peaks across 
the sea in the country of the Frost giants 
rocked and reeled. The waters foamed and 
tossed; the scorching lightnings flashed from 
his eyes; the whole sky was as one great sheet 
of fire. 

I he earth-children trembled as they had 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


51 


never trembled before. Even Loke, shivering 
with fear, cowered behind the golden pillars of 
the great arched gateway. 

“ Forgive me, forgive me! ” wailed he, 
as Thor flashed his great white light upon 
him. 

“Out from your hiding place, O coward! 
Out! Out, or my thunderbolts shall strike 
you dead.” 

“ Spare me, spare me! ” groaned Loke. 
“ Only spare me, and I will go down into the 
earth where the dwarfs do dwell —” 

“ Go ! ” thundered Thor, not waiting for 
the wretched god to finish. “ Go, and bring 
back to me a crown of golden threads, woven 
and spun in the smithies of the dwarfs, that 
shall be as beautiful, and ten thousand times 
more beautiful, than the golden crown you 
have stolen from the head of Sif. Go to 


52 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


them, tell them what you have done, and 
never again enter the shining gateway of the 
city of our Father Odin until you bring the 
crown.” 

Loke slunk away, the thunders of the 
wrath of Thor slowly, slowly following him. 
The lightnings flashed dully across the skies. 
The low rumbling of thunder, distant but 
threatening, warned Loke that the wrath of 
Thor was not appeased, neither would it be, 
nor would there be any return to Asgard for 
the evil doer, until the crown of gold was won. 






LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


53 



DWARFS FORGING CROWN FOR LORE. 


VIII. 

THOR’S HAMMER. 

It was away down in the underground 
caves, and beneath the roaring waters of the 
rivers, and deep in the hearts of the moun¬ 
tains that these dwarf workmen dwelt, and 
worked their smithies, and spun their gold and 
brass. 

“ Make me a crown of gold for Sif the 
wife of Thor,” snarled Loke, bursting in upon 
the workshop of the dwarfs. 

The dwarfs were ugly little creatures, 
with crooked legs, and crooked backs. Their 





54 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


eyes were black, wicked little beads of eyes, 
and their hearts were malicious and some- 
times cruel. But they were the willing and 
ready slaves of the gods ; and so, at even this 
ill-natured command from Loke, they set 
themselves to work. 

The coals burned and blazed; the forges 
puffed and blew; the little workmen moulded 
and turned and spun their gold. Hardly had 
the Sun-god lifted his head above the castles 
of the frost giants, hardly had his light fallen 
upon the rich colors of the rainbow bridge, 
when Loke came forth from the underground 
caves, the shining crown in his hand. 

Quickly he rose high in the air and stood 
before the gates of the city. 

“ Have you brought the crown ? ” thun¬ 
dered Thor from within the gates. 

“ I have brought the crown,” answered 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


55 


Loke in triumph. “ And more than that,” 
added he, when the gates had been opened to 
him, “ I have brought as gifts from the 
dwarfs, a ship that will sail on land or sea 
and a spear that never fails. O there are 
no such workmen among any dwarfs as these 
who made the spear, the ship and the crown.” 

“ You boast of what you do not know,” 
croaked Brok, a little dwarf who stood near 
by. 

“ Who says I do not know ? ” cried Loke, 
turning sharply. 

“ I say you do not know,” croaked the 
little dwarf again, his beadlike eyes snapping 
angrily, his whole crboked frame quivering 
with rage. “ I have a brother, a workman in 
brass and gold, who can make gifts more 
pleasing to the gods than any you have 
brought.” 


56 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Loke looked down upon the little dwarf 
in scorn. “ Go to your brother,” he sneered, 
“ and bring to us the wonderful things you 
think he can make. Bring us one gift more 
wonderful than these I have, or more accept¬ 
able to Odin and Thor, and I will give your 
brother my head to pay him for his efforts.” 
Then Loke roared with laughter, believing 
that he had made a rare, rich joke. 

Hardly had the roars of laughter died 
away, when Brok, gliding down the rainbow 
bridge with a swiftness equalled only by the 
lightning, sprang into Midgard, and was 
making his way towards the great mountain, 
beneath which worked the forges of his 
brother, the master-workman — Sindre. 

“ Some one cometh,” said the dwarfs, 
pausing in their work to listen, their busy 
hammers in mid-air. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


57 


“ Fear not,” answered Brok, his harsh 
voice echoing down the great halls. “ It is I 
— Brok—and I come to demand of you that 
now, if never again, you do your best; for 
Loke boasts to the gods of Asgard that no 
dwarfs in all the caverns of the under-world 
can make one gift more wonderful or more 
acceptable to Odin than those he brings—a 
crown of gold, a ship that will sail on land or 
sea, and a spear that never fails !” 

A terrible roar burst forth from the hosts 
of angry dwarfs. “ We will see! We will 
see!” they thundered. And seizing their 
hammers they set to work. The great forges 
blazed. The sparks flew. The smoke poured 
forth from the mountain top. Loke, looking 
out from the shining city, trembled. Well did 
he know the workmanship of these dwarfs of 
Brok; and well did he know how rash had 


58 LEGENDS OE NORSELAND. 

been bis scornful promise to the angry little 
dwarf. 

“We will make a hammer for Thor,” said 
Sindre, the greatest among the workmen in 
this under world; “ a hammer, that when 
thrown from his mighty hand, shall ring 
through all the heavens. A trail of fire shall 
follow it. Its aim shall never fail; and it shall 
carry death and destruction wherever it falls. 

“ Blow thou the bellows, Brok; and I 
myself will mould the hammer from the red 
hot iron.” 

With Brok at the bellows, the very 
mountain rocked, and Midgard for miles about 
was ablaze with the blaze of light from the 
mountain top. 

“ This shall not be,” snarled Loke. And 
rushing down from Asgard he crouched out 
side the great, black cave to listen. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


59 


“A hammer for Thor!” Those were the 
words he heard. The ugly face grew uglier. 
An instant, and there was no Loke at the 
cavern mouth; but instead, a poisonous, 
stinging gadfly, whose green back glistened, 
and whose shining wings buzzed and hummed 
with cruelty and revenge. There was a hard, 
ringing tone of defiance in their singing, and 
the tone was like that of the voice of Loke 
himself. 

“ You shall drop the bellows,” buzzed the 
gadfly bitterly, as it alighted upon the neck of 
Brok. 

It was a cruel sting; and its poison 
forced, even from the sturdy Brok, a cry of pain. 

“I know you. It is Loke,” he cried; 
“ but I will not drop the bellows though you 
sting me through and through and with a 
thousand stings !” 


60 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


The gadfly buzzed with rage. Straight 
towards the hand upon the bellows it darted. 
Brok groaned again. His face grew pale; he 
quivered with the pain; still he held the 
mighty bellows and worked the roaring forge. 

“You will not!” hissed the gadfly; and 
again it drove its poison sting, this time 
straight between the eyes of the suffering 
dwarf. And now Brok staggered. His hands 
relaxed their hold. Blinded with pain, he 
dropped the bellows. The blood ran down 
his face. The gadfly still hummed and 
buzzed. 

“ You have nearly spoiled it,” cried 
Sindre. “ Why did you drop the bellows ? 
See how short the handle is! And how 
rough ! But it cannot be helped now; nor 
will its terror be any less to Loke. Ha, ha, 
I would have made it handsome; but there is 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


61 


a power in it that shall make even the gods 
tremble in all the ages to come. Hurry away 
with it, and place it in Thor’s mighty hands. 
And here are other gifts. Take them all, and 
bring me Loke s head. He has promised. 
Surely even he must keep his word, wicked 
and deceitful though he is.” 

Brok seized the hammer, and, with the 
gifts, hurried up through the dark cavern, out 
into the light of Midgard, up the rainbow 
bridge, and, with triumph in his swarthy face, 
sprang into the presence of the great god Odin. 

Loke roared with laughter at the sight of 
the awkward, clumsy hammer; but there was 
a proud, confident look in the dwarf’s shining 
eyes that Loke did not like; and, coward 
that he was, his heart began already to 
fail him. 

“ Let us see the gifts,” said Odin, “ that 


62 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


we may judge which workman among the 
dwarfs has proved himself most wonderful. 

“ First of all,” said Loke, coming forward, 
“ Here is the golden crown for Sif.” 

Eagerly Thor seized the crown, and 
placed it upon poor Sif's head. 

“Wonderful! wonderful!” cried all the 
gods, for straightway the golden hair began to 
grow to Sif’s head, and in a second it was as if 
her golden locks had never been stolen from her. 

“ To you, O Odin,” said the dwarf, now 
coming forward, “ I give this ring of gold. It 
is a magic ring; and each night it will cast off 
from itself another ring, as pure and as heavy, 
as round and as large as itself.” 

“ What is that,” sneered Loke, “ compared 
with this ? See, O Father Odin, I bring you a 
magic spear. Accept this, my second gift. 
It is a magic spear that never fails.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


63 


“ But behold my second gift,” interrupted 
Brok. “ It is a boar of wonderful strength. 
It, too, is magic. No horse can run, no bird 
can fly with such speed. It travels both on 
land and sea; and in the night its bristles 
shine with such a light;:: that it matters not 
how dense the blackness, the forest or the 
plain will be as bright as noonday.” 

“ I, too, have a gift that will travel on 
land or sea,” cried Loke, pushing himself 
forward again. “ See, it fs a ship. And not 
only will it travel on land or sea, but it can 
lift itself and sail like a bird above the clouds 
and through the air.” 

“ It will be hard indeed to say which gift 
is greatest,” said Odin kindly. 

“ Look now, O, Odin, and Frigg and 
Thor and Sif and all the gods, at this the last 
of my three gifts. This hammer, O Thor, I 


64 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


bring to you, the god of thunder. Strike with 
it, and your thunders shall echo and re-echo 
from cloud to cloud as never they were heard 
before. Thrown into the air or at a foe, like 
Loke’s spear, it shall never miss its aim ; but, 
more than that, it shall return always to the 
hand of Thor. No foe can conceal it, no foe 
can destroy it. It will never fail thee, O Thor, 
thou god of thunder.” 

“ But what a clumsy handle,” sneered 
Loke, who already began to fear the hammer 
was to win the favor of the gods. 

“ Yes,” answered Brok, “ the handle is 
clumsy and it is short. But none knows 
better than you why it is so.” 

Loke colored and moved uneasily. “ Do 
not think,” continued Brok, “ that I do not 
know it was you who sent the poisonous 
gadfly to sting and bite me as I worked at the 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


65 


blazing forge, pounding out the brass and gold 
from which this hammer is made. 

“You thought to pain me into giving up 
this contest, you coward! you evil one! you 
boaster! 

“When the handle was welded just so far, 
you drove the gadfly into my eye. I could not 
see to finish the work ; but although the handle 
is short and clumsy, the magic power is there, 
and with it in his hand, no power in earth or 
among the frost giants even can overcome 
our great god Thor.” 

A ringing shout of joy arose from the 
gods. Thor swung his hammer over his head 
and threw it far out against the clouds. The 
thunder rolled, the clouds filled with blackness, 
and the lightnings flashed, as the magic 
hammer, humming through the air, came back 
to the hands of Thor. 


66 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ Now give me my wager,” cried Brok. 
“ I was promised the head of Loke.” 

“Take it,” laughed Loke. “Take it.” 

Brok drew near. “ I will take it,” is 
hissed through his set teeth ; “ and a rich day 
will it be both in Midgard and in Asgard 
when your miserable head is bound down in 
the home of the dwarfs of the underground 
world.” 

“But halt,” commanded Loke. “ My head 
you may have; but you must not touch my 
neck. One drop of blood from that, and you 
forfeit your life.” 

Brok stood for a moment white with 
anger. He knew that he was foiled. Then 
springing forward, he thundered, “ I may not 
touch your neck; but see, I have my 
revenge.” And so, falling upon Loke, who 
struggled, but struggled in vain, he whipped 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


67 


from his mantle a thong and thread of brass; 
and before even Loke knew what had been 
done, he had sewed, firm together, the lying 
boasting lips of the evil god, Loke, the wicked- 
hearted son of Odin. 



THOR. 















68 


LEGENDS OF NOllSELAND. 



THE THEFT OF THE HAMMER. 

XI. 

It was to the sweet and loving god 
Baldur that the earth owed its warmth and 
beauty, its rich fruit and its rare harvests. 
How the frost giants hated Baldur, and how 
they struggled year after year to wrest the 
earth from him ! 

They hated the warmth Baldur brought 
with him, for it destroyed their power. They 
hated the sweet flowers and the soft grass and 
the tiny leaves that everywhere peeped out 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


69 


when the winds whispered, “ Baldur is coming, 
Baldur is coming.” 

But no sooner had Baldur turned away 
and said, “ Good-bye, dear Earth, for a little 
time, remember Baldur loves you and will 
come back again to you,” than the frost giants 
would creep out from their mountain gorges, 
and burst forth upon the fields and forests. 

The tiny bubbling brooks they would 
seal with their cruel chains of ice; even the 
great rivers could not hold their freedom 
against the giant power. 

Like angry fiends they would seize upon 
the leaves and tear them from the trees. The 
tiny flowers hung their heads and shriveled 
with fear when they approached; nor were 
the frost giants content until the whole earth 
lay brown and cold and barren beneath their 
hand. Then, all beauty swept away, they 


70 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


covered over all, their silent sheet of snow, 
and stood, grim sentinels, cold and hard, 
guarding their work of destruction and deso¬ 
lation. 

There was deep silence when the frost 
giants reigned ; no sound was heard save the 
sad moaning among the branches of the forest, 
as the firs and pine trees bent towards each 
other and whispered of the days when Baldur 
shone upon them. 

But the frost giants never yet had con¬ 
quered ; never yet had Baldur failed to return 
to the trees and flowers and rivers and 
streams that he loved so well. 

At his first step upon the ice, a crackling 
sound was heard — a sound which awoke the 
sleeping earth and warned the frost giants to 
flee to their mountains. 

“ Baldur has come ! Baldur has come ! ” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


71 


the birds and every living thing would cry; 
and a rustle and sound of music would thrill 
the waiting earth. 

Then came always a mighty battle. The 
frost giants lashed the waters and rocked the 
trees. The winds shrieked, the sky grew cold 
and black. The snows fell and the driving 
rain beat against the earth. But Baldur, the 
quiet, firm, loving Baldur always conquered. 
How, he himself could hardly tell. He did not 
fight; he did not storm. He only bent his shin¬ 
ing face over the struggling earth and waited. 

Little by little, when their fury was spent, 
the frost giants, defiant but conquered, 
retreated. The great sheets of ice broke up, 
and the rivers rushed forth singing their mad 
songs of joy and freedom. The snows faded 
away, and one by one the little flowers peeped 
forth again. 


72 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


All now was happiness and warmth and 
fragrance; the flowers bloomed; the fruits 
turned mellow; the sky grew warm ; and the 
pines and fir trees breathed deep sighs of rest 
and contentment that once again sweet Baldur 
was among them. 

And not only did the frost giants hate 
Baldur, but they hated Frey, who often robbed 
them of the fruits and flowers they loved to 
breathe their bitter breath upon and kill. 
Thor, too, they hated; for with his magic 
hammer, he now, more than ever, loved to 
bring forth the lightnings and the thunder, 
and to send down upon the earth refreshing 
showers of soft, warm rain. 

As the frost giants scowled down from 
their icy castles, and saw the little flowers turn 
up their happy faces to drink in the sparkling 
drops, and heard the birds trill their happy 


LEGENDS OF NOKSELAND. 


73 


songs, and smelled the rich fragrance of the 
damp firs and pines, they roared with anger 
and vexation. 

“ Let us revenge ourselves upon this 
insolent Thor who robs us of our rights,” they 
bellowed to each other across the great valleys 
that separated their giant peaks. 

“ We can do nothing so long as he holds 
the magic hammer,” growled one. 

“ We must steal the hammer from him,” 
shouted another. 

“ Steal the hammer! Steal the hammer! ” 
shouted all the giants until the very skies 
echoed with the words. 

14 And I will be the one to steal it,” bel¬ 
lowed Thrym, the strongest and greatest giant 
of them all. 

44 And, moreover, I will go at once to the 
city of Asgard. The gods are asleep. With 


74 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


my great eye, I can see even now the hammer 
lying beside the sleeping Thor. Guard my 
castle. I am gone.” 



THE THEFT OF THE HAMMER. 


And putting on the guise of a great bird, 
Thrym spread his wings and flew across the 
black night to Asgard. The gods shivered in 
their sleep as he entered and breathed his 
breath upon the summer air of heaven, but 
knew not what had chilled them. 











LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


75 


In the morning there was a heavy frost 
upon the gateways. There was a chill in the 
air. For Thrym, the frost giant, had crept in 
upon them. He had crept even to the hall in 
which the mighty Thor was sleeping. He had 
crept eloSe beside the mighty god—and the 
magic hammer was gone. 





76 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



THOR AND LOKE ON THE JOURNEY AFTER THE HAMMER. 


XII. 

THE FINDING OF THE HAMMER. 

“My hammer! My hammer!” thun¬ 
dered Thor, awaking and finding it gone. 

The gods in all Asgard awoke with a 
start. 

“ What a crash of thunder! So quick, 



LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


77 


so sharp!” cried the earth-people; for they 
did not know it was a cry of rage from Thor. 

“ Loke,” thundered Thor again. “ Put 
you on wings. Go you to the home of the 
Frost giants and bring back my hammer 
Some one of them has stolen it. Go! Go! I 
say.” 

And Loke, who had been a very obedient 
servant to Thor since his theft of the golden 
hair of Sif, put on the magic wings and fled 
away. 

“ What brings you here in the land of the 
Frost giants?” growled Thrym, as Loke 
alighted before him. 

“ I have come for the hammer you have 
stolen from Thor,” answered Loke boldly, 
seeing at once, from the jeering look in 
Thrym s eye, that he was the thief. 

“ You will never find it,” sneered Thrym. 



FREYJA IN HER CHARIOT, 




































LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


79 


” It is well hidden ; but I will send it back to 
you if Odin will send me Freyja for my wife.” 

Loke begged and coaxed and threatened; 
but it was all of no avail. “ Never,” bellowed 
Thrym, “ until you send Freyja to me.” 

“ She shall go,” thundered Thor, when 
Loke came back to Asgard. “ Whatever the 
price, the hammer must be brought back. 
Asgard is not safe without it.” 

But Freyja was as fierce as had been 
Thrym himself. “ I will not go,” she insisted. 
“ Never ! Never ! Never will I go ! ” 

“ I say you must,” thundered Thor. But 
although Thors thunders were terrible and 
his frown was deep and inky black, Freyja 
was not to be moved either by pleading or 
threatening. 

“ Go yourself,” said she. “Dress yourself 
as a goddess and go.” Nor would she listen 


80 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


even to another word. Thor thundered and 
rumbled and rolled. It was all of no avail. 
Freyja was a goddess and would not be driven. 

“ I will go,” said Thor at last. “ Bring 
me a bridal dress. Hang a necklace around 
my neck. Bind a bridal veil about my head. 
The giants are as stupid as they are large; 
and I will set forth in the name of Freyja to 
meet the giant Thrym.” 

Thor was quickly dressed, and the bridal 
party set forth across the sky in the chariot 
of the Sungod. How the thunder rolled! 
How the lightnings flashed from the angry eyes 
of Thor! How he grumbled and rumbled! 

Jotunheim was reached. The Sungod 
lowered his chariot behind the hills; and a 
soft, red light spread over the earth and sky as 
the bridal party entered the castle of the giant 
Thrym. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND 


81 


“ Freyja has come! Freyja has come!” 
bellowed Thrym. “ Come, come, everyone to 
the bridal feast! Come, come to the feast of 
Thrym and Freyja!” 

The giants in all the mountains round 
about answered to the call of Thrym. An 
hour, and the huge castle was filled with the 
huge guests. A great feast was held. But 
through it all Thor sat silent and motionless. 
Indeed, he dared not move; he dared not 
speak lest the thunder burst forth from his 
lips, or the lightning shoot forth from his eyes. 

“ Now lift the veil from Freyja’s face,” 
bellowed Thrym, when all save the bride her¬ 
self had eaten and drank their fill. “ Let me 
see the eyes of my bride. Let us all look 
upon the face of my goddess bride. ’ 

“Not yet,” whispered Loke coming for¬ 
ward ; “ it was the command of Thor that the 


82 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


veil should not be lifted, nor should you claim 
Freyja for your own, until the hammer was 
placed in her hand, to be returned to the gods.” 

“ Bring in the hammer ! Bring in the ham¬ 
mer ! ” roared Thrym, full of loud, good humor. 

The hammer was brought. Hardly could 
Thor wait to have it placed in his hand. 

His thunder began to rumble. There 
was a dangerous light in his eyes ; but Thrym 
and the guests saw none of this. But hardly 
was the hammer within his reach when forth 
Thor sprang, seized it in his clutched fingers, 
tore aside the bridal veil, and with a rumble 
and a roar that shook the mountains of Jotun- 
heim and razed the great stone castles to the 
ground, he poured out his lightnings upon the 
giants, one and all. Right and left he swung 
the mighty weapon; the giants quaked and 
trembled with terror; Thrym ran and hid 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


83 


himself behind a mountain ; the air was white 
with lightning; the hills rang with the crash- 
ings of the thunder; the seas lashed and 
foamed and answered back the echoes; the 
walls of Jotunheim shook and trembled. 

And now the chariot of the Sungod was 
near at hatid. Into it Thor and Loke leaped, 
and were borne back to the city of the gods. 
The hammer was restored. Again Thor held 
it in his mighty grasp. He held it, and 
Asgard once more was safe. 




84 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



XIII. 

THE APPLES OF LIFE. 

Part I. 

Among the gods in Asgard, dwelt the 
beautiful Idun, the goddess whose care it was 
to guard the apples of life. 

“ Idun, Odin, had said as he gave into 
her hands the rosy apples, “ to guard these 



LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


85 


apples and keep them forever from all harm, 
is to do a greater service for Asgard than 
even Thor, with his mighty thunders, or 
Baldur, with his warm light, can do; for 
these are the apples of everlasting youth. 
Without them, what would Asgard be more 
than the cities of Midgard or of Jotunheim? 
What would the gods be more than the 
mortals of Midgard or the giants of Jotun¬ 
heim ? So guard them well, beautiful Idun, 
for to them you owe your beauty, even as we 
owe to them our never fading youth.” 

One day, when all was quiet and peaceful 
and happy in the city of Asgard, Loke, feeling 
within him the stirring of his own evil heart, 
betook himself to Midgard in search of mis¬ 
chief. The peace and quiet of Asgard he 
could no longer endure. Then, too, it was to 
him a cruel delight to shoot his arrows into 


86 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


the lives of the helpless children of Midgard 
and make them sad. 

O, Loke was a cruel god! “Surely,” Odin 
would sometimes say, as he looked upon him 
and thought of the wretchedness that yet 
would fall on Asgard through Loke’s wicked 
deeds, “ surely, Loke has the spirit of a Frost 
giant; and the Frost giants are bitter, bitter 
foes to Asgard.” 

This day Loke longed for mischief. “ I 
will go down to Midgard and find some happy 
heart to sadden, said he, his eyes shining 
with their wicked light. 

Down the rainbow bridge he hastened, 
and, with a light bound, sprang upon a bright 
tree in the beautiful land of Midgard. 

“Who are you?” cried he, seeing in the 
tree beside him a great, white bird. 

But the bird made no reply ; he only 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


87 


winked, and blinked, and stared at Loke, and 
crooned, and pruned his feathers. 

“ Do you not know a god speaks to you ?” 
stormed Loke, growing angry even with a bird. 

Still no answer. 

“Was ever there such a stupid bird? 
Indeed, like the people of Midgard, you seem 
to have no wisdom,” sneered Loke. And, 
determined to vent his evil mood, he seized a 
branch and began to beat the bird. 

Then a strange thing happened. The 
bird, who all this time had seemed so stupid — 
too stupid even to fly away — now seized 
upon the bough and held it fast. Loke pulled 
and pulled with all his godlike strength. He 
could not move it; it was as if held in the 
grasp of a giant. 

“ Stupid bird ! ” sneered Loke, when he 
found he could do the bird no harm. “ I will 


88 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


not stay in the tree with such a stupid 
creature.” 

A strange sound — almost like a laugh of 
triumph — squeezed itself out from the beak 
of the big bird. 

“ Go, Loke, go at once. Go back to 
Asgard; or perhaps you would like to go with 
me to Jotunheim,” spoke the bird at last. 
And as he spoke, he spread his wings, and 
arose high in the air. Alas, alas for Loke, as 
the bird rose, he rose too; nor could he free 
himself. He screamed, he fought, he begged, 
he strove with all his godlike arts to free 
himself, but all in vain. 

On, on they flew, the bird and Loke, 
across the sky, over and under and between 
the clouds, across the great wide sea, at last 
across the snow-white peaks, down, down to a 
castle in Jotunheim, in the land of the mighty 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


89 


Frost giants, the terrible, the dreaded enemies 
of the gods. 

“Let me free! Let me free!” foamed 
Loke, struggling against the bird, whose magic 
held him fast. 

“ I will never let you free,” answered the 
bird, throwing off his disguise and standing 
forth a giant foe ; “ I will never let you free 
except on one condition.” 

“ I grant it! I grant it! Whatever it is, 
I grant it,” cried the coward, caring for 
nothing but to free himself. 

“ The condition is this,” continued the 
giant coolly: “I will let you free if you will 
bring me, without delay, the apples of ever¬ 
lasting youth—the apples that Idun guards 
and watches over, locked so closely in the 
golden casket in the city of Asgard. 

Loke stared. He caught his breath. To 


90 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


give up the apples of life — the fruit by which 
the gods were kept forever young and strong 
and beautiful, — that was too great a thing to 
ask even of Loke, evil as he was. 

“ There are no such apples,” answered he, 
trying, as cowards always do, to hide himself 
behind a lie. “ There are no such apples.” 

“ Very well,” answered the giant, opening 
a great dungeon door, and thrusting Loke in. 
“ When you are ready to do what I say, you 
may come out; never until then.” The great 
dungeon door creaked upon its terrible hinges 
and Loke was alone, a prisoner, at the mercy 
of the Frost giant. 

Loke howled and beat against the walls 
of the dungeon. 

“Are you ready to do what I asked of 
you?” asked the Frost giant, opening the 
great door the next morning. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


91 


“ There are no such apples,” cried Loke. 
“ On my honor as a god, I swear it!” 

The giant made no reply. The heavy 
door creaked again, and Loke was alone. 



“ Are you ready to do what I asked of 
you ? ” asked the Frost giant, opening the 
great door the second morning. 

“ Anything in all Asgard, O Giant, I prom¬ 
ise you—anything but the apples,” cried Loke. 








92 


LEGENDS OF NOIISELAND. 


The giant made no reply. The 
heavy door creaked again, and Loke was 
alone. 

“ Are you willing to do what I asked of 
you ? ” asked the Frost giant, opening the 
great door the third morning. 

“ One of the apples, O Giant, I might 
steal from Idun and escape with before the 
fruit was missed/’ Loke began. 

The giant made no reply. The heavy 
door creaked again and Loke was alone. 

“ Are you ready to do what I asked of 
you?” asked the Frost giant, opening the 
great door the fourth morning. 

“ Yes, two of the three apples will I 
promise to bring you. With even one left, 
the gods might be content; for even then their 
lives would be far longer than the life of 
mortals.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


93 


The giant made no reply. The heavy 
door creaked again and Loke was alone. 

“ Are you ready to do what I asked of 
you ? ” asked the Frost giant, opening the 
great door the fifth morning. 

“ Yes,” answered Loke, meekly. 

“ You are willing to bring the apples of 
life ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“And you will bring all three of them?” 

“ Yes.” 

“And you will bring them at once?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Go, then. I will go with you. Outside 
the walls of the shining city I will wait for 
you to bring the apples to me.” 

Then putting on the guise of birds, the 
two set forth, reaching the gateway of the city 
just as the Sungod was pouring down his 


94 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


flood of red and golden light upon the shining 
spires. The whole city lay bathed in the 
sunset splendor. 

“ Idun,” said Loke, going directly to her, 
“ it is well you guard so closely these golden 
apples of life. Without them we should grow 
old and die, even as wretched mortals grow 
old and die.” 

“ Indeed, it would fare ill with us if harm 
came to these precious apples,” answered 
Idun. “ See the rich bloom upon them. If 
that were lost, then would our bloom be lost 
as well, and we should grow old and wrinkled.” 

“ Yes,” answered Loke ; “ and still,— it 
seems very strange—Tut outside the gate of 
our city, just on the outer walls, are growing 
apples, looking so like these I cannot tell them 
one from the other. Bring your apples with 
you and let us see if they are alike. If they 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


95 


should prove to be, then I will gather them 
for you, and we will put them all together in 
the golden casket.” 

“ How strange ! ” thought Idun innocently. 

“The Frost giant, in his great bird guise, 
wheeled round and round, impatiently awaiting 
the coming of Idun and the apples. Hardly 
had the gates closed upon her, when down he 
swooped, seized her in his great strong beak, 
and flew with her across the sea to his home 
among the mountains. 

The days rolled on and on. The Sungod 
rose, and drove his chariot across the sky, 
and sank behind the distant purple hills a 
thousand times. 

There was a gloom, a shadow over 
Asgard ; for the gods were growing old. The 
life had gone out of their eyes; their smooth 
round faces had grown thin and peaked ; their 


96 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


step was halting, and the feebleness of age 
was falling upon them. 

«it is Loke who has done this,” thun¬ 
dered Thor one day, when, from old age and 
weakness, he had been defeated in a battle 
with the now ever youthful giants. “ It is 
Loke who has done this, and we will bear it 
no longer. Look at Odin; even he grows 
weak and bent and trembling. He is like the 
old men in Midgard. He, Odin, the All¬ 
father.” 

Thor’s indignation waxed stronger and 
stronger. He set forth in search of Loke. “I 
will not even wait for him to come,” he 
thundered, seizing his hammer and setting 
forth. I shall find him, the evil-hearted, some¬ 
where making mischief among the innocent 
people of Midgard,” said he. 


LEGENDS OE NOliSELAND. 


97 



XIV. 

THE APPLES OF LIFE. 

Part II. 

“ Henceforth, O evil-hearted, cruel Loke,” 
burst forth the angry Thor, “ henceforth Thor 
guards the walls of Asgard. Midgard, the 
skies, he shall forsake; no more will he brew 
storms; never shall the thunder roll nor the 
lightnings flash ; for Thor will watch forever 
upon the battlements of Asgard the approach 
of the evil god who has brought such grief 
upon us. Never shall he enter the gates of 
the city again. Let him dare approach even 


98 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


to the golden gates, and Thor will smite him 
with his mighty hammer.” 

Loke quailed before the fury of the great 
God Thor. To be an outcast from Asgard, 
even he could not bear. “ Spare me, spare 
me ! ” whined the cowardly Loke. “ Spare me 
once more, and I will go again to Jotunheim. 
I will bring back Idun and the three apples of 
life.” 

Thor stood looking at the cowardly Loke. 
He longed to strike him with the hammer ; to 
kill him with his thunder bolt: to scorch him 
with his lightning arrows. But, evil as he 
was, Loke was immortal ; he was the son of 
Odin. 

“Go, then, you mischief-making, evil- 
hearted son of unhappy Odin! Go: and 
whether success is yours or not, remember 
Thor guards the walls of Asgard and watches 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


99 


with his thunders for your return. Never, 
never, as long as Thor wields the mighty 
hammer, and holds the powers of thunder and 



lightning, shall Loke enter the golden city 
without the golden apples of immortal life.” 

Without another word, Loke put on his 
guise of a great white bird and sped across 


100 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


the sea and sky, again to the land of Jotun- 
heim. 

Straight down he swooped upon the 
castle of the giant who, all this time, had kept 
Idun imprisoned in a strong walled tower of 
solid rock. 

The giant was out upon the sea. “ And 
it is well for me,” thought Loke, “ that he is. 
No power in Midgard or in Asgard could 
wrest these precious apples from the giants 
grasp.” 

One quick look out over the mountains 
and down upon the sea, and Loke seized Idun 
in his talons, changed her at once into a nut, 
the apples safe within the shell, and swept 
away towards Asgard. 

But alas for Loke! The giant had heard 
the whirr of the great white wings. Leaping 
to his feet in his boat, he scanned the sky 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND 


101 


with his sharp giant eye. “ It is Loke! It is 
Loke! ” bellowed he, catching sight of the 
great white bird among the clouds. “ It is 
Loke ! It is Loke ! No bird of Midgard flies 
so high nor sweeps the air with such mighty 
wings.” 

With one great giant pull, he shot his 
boat upon the shore; with one great giant 
bound he struck the mountain top. 

“ The apples of life! the apples of life!” 
he thundered. “ Gone ! gone ! The apples of 
life are gone ! ” 

One second, and putting on the guise of 
a great grey eagle he shot up into the sky in 
swift pursuit of Loke. The Sungod hid his 
chariot behind a cloud that the shadows might 
protect and cover Loke. Thor sent forth his 
thunder. The skies blackened ; the wind beat 
back the great grey eagle; the lightnings 


102 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


staggered and blinded him. Still on and on 
he flew, gaining in spite of all upon the track 
of Loke. 

Every eye in Asgard was strained; every 
giant in Jotunheim stood breathless upon his 
mountain. The great round faces of the 
giants grew tense; the wrinkled aged faces of 
the gods grew pale. It was a terrible race. 
It was a race for life and health and ever¬ 
lasting youth. 

“ Build fires upon the walls! Heap up 
the brush! Stand ready with the tapers! ” 
cried Odin, who foresaw the end. 

The brush is heaped. Each god stands 
ready, his haggard face growing whiter and 
thinner with fright and dread and eagerness. 

Already the rush of Loke’s wings are 
heard. The eagle follows close. Nearer and 
nearer they come, closer and closer is the race. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


103 


One moment more! — One second! — The 
frightened eyes of Loke can be seen, so near 
he is. Thor sends his blinding fire once more 
across the eagle’s track. It reels, for an 
instant it falls back. In that one second, with 
one last mighty stroke, Loke clears the 
walls and falls, exhausted, breathless, almost 
dead upon the golden pavement of the 
city. 

“ The fires ! the fires ! the fires ! ” cried 
Odin. An instant, and there rises from the 
walls great sheets of blaze. The brush 
crackles and snaps and sends up great tongues 
of fire. The eagle, angry, desperate, and 
blinded by the lightning sweeps on, straight 
towards them. Like a foolish moth, he bears 
down upon the city, into the very heart of the 
blaze. A sudden crackling, a cry of pain, a 
cloud of black, black smoke, and the great grey 


104 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


eagle falls a helpless mass upon the pavement 
beside the breathless Loke. 

The haggard faces flush with hope and 
joy. The apples are safe. Idun has come 
back, the apples again are theirs, and life and 
joy and eternal youth once more are with 
them. 

Now the goddess of music bursts forth 
again in song; the god of poetry pours forth 
his melody; a feast is spread, and the gods 
and goddesses once more eat of the wonderful 
apples of life. The color comes back into 
their faded cheeks; light again flashes from 
their eyes. Youth and health and strength 
are theirs again. Peace reigns once more in 
Asgard. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


105 



LORE’S WOLF. 

Although the Apples of Life had been 
brought back, and although Loke appeared for 
some time very penitent and willing to obey 
the laws of the kind Odin, the gods had little 
faith in him. More than that, so much had 
they suffered, that now they were in constant 
fear of him. “ We never know,” plead Freyja 
and Sif and Idun, all of whom had good 
reason to fear him, “ what mischief he may be 
planning.” 

And so it came about that Loke was 
driven forth from Asgard, as indeed he 
deserved to be. 





106 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Straight to the home of the giants Loke 
went — he always had been a giant at heart, 
the evil creature! — and was much more in 
harmony with them in their thoughts and acts, 
than ever he had been with the gods whom he 
claimed as his people. 

But now that he was cast out from 
Asgard, and could no longer share its beauties 
and its joys, he had but one wish — that was, 
to be revenged upon the gods, to destroy 
them, and to ruin their golden city. 

To do this he raised two dreadful 
creatures. Terrible monsters! Even the 
gods shuddered as they looked upon them. 

“ Loke ! Loke ! ” thundered Odin, looking 
down upon him in wrath that he should dare 
such vengeance. 

But Loke stood defiant. There was but 
one thing to be done, so the gods thought; 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


107 


and that was to take these terrible creatures 
from Loke’s power. 

“ The serpent we will cast into the sea,” 
said Thor. “ But the wolf — what shall we do 
with the wolf? Certainly he cannot be left to 
wander up and down in Midgard. The sea 
would not hold him. Loke must not have 
him in Jotunheim. What shall be done with 
him ? ” 

“ Kill him/' said some. 

“No,” answered Odin. “To him Loke 
has given the gift of everlasting life. He will 
not die as long as we the gods have life. 
There is but one way left open to us; and that 
is to bring the wolf into Asgard. Here we 
can watch him and keep him from much, if 
not all the evil he would do.” 

And so the wolf—the Fenris-wolf he was 
called — was brought into the home of the gods. 


108 


LEGENDS OE NORSELAND. 


He was a dreadful creature to look upon. 
His eyes were like balls of fire; and his fangs 
were white, and sharp, and cruel. 

Every day he grew more terrible. Fiercer 
and fiercer he grew, and larger and stronger 
and more dreadful to look upon. 

“What is to be done with him ?” asked 
Odin one day, his face white with despair, as 
he looked upon the wolf, and realized what 
sorrow by and by he would bring among 
them. 

“ Kill him ! ” cried one. 

“Send him to Jotunheim,” cried another. 

“ Chain him,” thundered Thor. And 
indeed to chain him seemed really the only 
thing that could be done with him. 

“We will make the chains this night,” 
said Thor. And at once the great forge was 
set in motion. All night long Thor worked 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


109 


the forge, hammering with his mighty hammer 
the links that should make a chain to hold the 
Fenris-wolf. 

Morning came. The gods were filled 
with hope as they saw the great heap of iron. 
“ Now we shall be safe. Now we shall be 
free,” they said; for no creature living can 
break the irons that the god of Thunder 
forges.” 

The wolf growled and showed his wicked 
teeth as Thor approached and threw the chain 
about him. He knew the gods hated him and 
feared him. He knew, too, that, with his 
wondrous strength, even the chains of Thor 
were not too strong for him to break. 

So, snarling and showing his fangs and 
lashing his tail, he allowed himself to be 
bound. “They are afraid of me,” the cruel 
wolf grinned. “ And well they may be; 


110 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


there is a power in me that even they do not 
yet dream of.” 

The chains were tightly fastened, and the 
gods waited eagerly for the wolf to test his 
strength with them. 

Now, the wolf knew well enough that 
there were no chains that could hold him. “ I 
will amuse myself,” said he to himself, “ by 
tormenting the gods.” So he glared at the 
chains with his fiery eyes, sniffed here and 
there at them, lifted one paw and then the 
other, bit at them with his sharp teeth, and 
clawed at them with his strong claws ; setting 
up now and then a howl that echoed, like the 
thunders of Thor, from cloud to cloud across 
the skies. 

The faces of the gods grew brighter and 
brighter. They looked at each other and hope 
rose high in their hearts. “ We are saved! ” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Ill 


they whispered to each other. “ Hear how he 
howls! He knows he cannot break chains 
forged in the smithy of the mighty Thor.” 

But Odin did not smile. He knew only 
too well that the wolf was amusing himself; 
and that when the gods were least expecting 
it, he would spring forth and shatter the links 
of the mighty chain, even as a mortal might 
shatter a chain of straw. 

“ Conquered at last, you cruel Fenris- 
wolf!” thundered Thor, lifting his hammer in 
scorn, to throw at the helpless wolf. 

“ The Fenris-wolf is never conquered,” 
hissed the wolf; and with one bound he 
leaped across the walls of Asgard, down, down 
across the skies to Midgard, the links of the 
chains scattering like sparks of fire as he flew 
through the air. 

“ See! See ! ” cried the people of Mid- 


112 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


gard, as they saw the fiery eyes of Fenris 
gleam across the sky. “ See! A star has 
fallen ! A star has fallen into the sea ! ” For 
the people of Midgard cannot understand the 
wonders of the heavens and the mysteries of 
the gods. 



The gods stood, wonder-struck. Their 
faces were pale with fright. The brow of 
Thor grew black and stern. Odin looked 
pityingly upon them all. “ Lose not your 
courage,” said he kindly. “The Fenris-wolf 
shall yet be bound; and there shall yet remain 






LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


113 


to us ages upon ages of happiness and 
freedom from his wicked power. Go now to 
the dwarfs who work their forges in the great 
mines beneath the mountains of Midgard. 
They shall make for you a magic chain that 
even Fenris cannot break.” 

Hardly were the words out of Odin’s 
mouth when Thor set forth upon the wings of 
his own lightning, to the home of the dwarfs, 
to do the bidding of Odin the All-wise. 





114 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



XVI 

THE FENRIS WOLF. 

Part II. 

With wonderful speed the chain was 
forged; and when the Sun-god lifted his head 
above the hills, to send forth his light again 
across the fields of Midgard, the first sight 
that greeted his return was Thor, a great mass 
of golden coil within his hand, speeding up 
the rainbow bridge to Asgard. 

It was a tiny chain — hardly larger than 
a thread; but in it lay a magic strength. 

Entering the great golden gate, Thor saw 
the Fenris wolf, again creeping stealthily up 
and down the streets. 






LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


115 


Thors hand shut tight upon the handle 
of his hammer. It was hard to believe that a 
blow from the hammer would not slay the 
wicked creature. For an instant Thor’s face 
grew black. Then forcing a smile, and show¬ 
ing to the wolf the mass of gold, he said, 
“ Come Fenris ; come with me into the hall. 
There the gods are to meet and test our 
strength upon this magic coil. Whoever 
breaks it, and so proves himself the strongest, 
is to win a prize from the great All-father 
Odin.” 

The wolf stretched back his cruel lips, 
and showed his sharp fangs of teeth. He did 
not speak ; but his wicked grin said, “ You do 
not deceive the Fenris-wolf.” 

Together Thor and the Fenris-wolf 
entered the presence of Odin and the gods and 
goddesses. 


116 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ I have,” said Thor, “ a magic coil. It is 
very strong. The dwarfs made it for me; and 
Odin has promised a great prize to the one 
who shall be strong enough to break its links. 
Come, let us try.” 

Then the gods—for they all understood 
what Thor was about to do — sprang forward, 
seizing the coil, pulling and twisting it in 
every way and in every direction, coiling it 
about the pillars of the hall, and hanging by it 
from the arches; until at last, tired out and 
breathless, they sank exhausted upon the 
golden floors. 

“ Fenris, called Thor. “ Now is your 
time to prove to us what you have so often 
said — that you are stronger than we. Try if 
you can break this golden thread which, small 
as it is, has proved too strong for the strength 
of the gods.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


117 


The wolf growled. He did not care to 
risk even his strength in a magic coil. He 
growled and slunk away. 

“What! Fenris, are you a coward? After 
all your boasted strength, why is it that you 
shrink from a contest in which the gods have 
willingly taken part? Do you mean to say 
that, because the gods have been defeated, vou 
fear that you, too, may be defeated?” 

The wolf halted. He looked back at the 
gods and growled a long, low growl. The 
words of Thor had stung his pride. 

Thor laughed. “ O Fenris, Fenris! this 
is your boasted strength ! your boasted cour¬ 
age! To slink away in a contest with the 
gods—the gods at whose strength you have 
always sneered and scoffed.” 

“Fenris is a coward!” cried all the gods; 
and the heavens echoed with their laughter. 


118 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


This was more than the wolf could bear. 
Back he sprang into the hall. 

“I hear your sneers,” he snarled. “I hear 
you call me coward. Give me the cord ; bind 
me with it round and round ; fasten me to the 
strongest pillar of this great hall. If the coil 
is an honest coil, Fenris can break it. There 
is no chain he cannot break. But if you are 
blinding me — if you have here a cord woven 
with magic such as no power can break—how 
am I to know? I put this test to you. Some 
one of you shall place your hand between my 
jaws. As long as that hand is there, you may 
coil and coil the thread about me. Then, if I 
find the cord a magic cord, Fenris shall set his 
teeth upon the hand and crush it.” 

The gods stared at one another. Surely, 
Thor must not lose his hand. Thor needed 
his hand with which to wield the magic hammer. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


119 


Then Tyre, the brave god Tyre, the god 
of courage and bravery and unselfishness 
stepped forth. 

“ Here is my hand, O Fenris-wolf. It 
shall be yours to destroy if you can not loose 
yourself when bound in the golden coil.” 

Again the Fenris-wolf showed his shining 
teeth. He seized the hand between his heavy 
jaws ; Thor bound the cord about him. “Now 
free yourself,” he thundered. “ Free yourself, 
and prove to the gods the mighty power of the 
Fenris-wolf.” 

The wolf, his eyes blazing with wrath, 
and with fear as well, struggled with the coil. 
But alas for the wolf ! And joy for the gods ! 
The harder he struggled, the fiercer he battled, 
the tighter drew the cord. With a howl of 
rage that ^ook the city and echoed even to 
the base of<~the great Mt. Ida, he seized upon 


120 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND 


the hand of Tyre and tore it from his wrist. 
With another angry howl he sprang towards 
Thor; but with a quick turn Thor seized one 
end of the coil, fastened it to a great rock, 
and before the wolf could set his fangs he 
hurled him, rock and all, over the walls of 
the city, down down into the mighty sea. 

“ And there, chained to his rocky island, 
he shall abide forever,” cried the gods; “ and 
now peace once more shall rest upon our city.” 

But Odin sighed, and to himself he said, 
“ O happy children, there shall yet come a day 
when darkness shall fall upon us; the Fenris- 
wolf shall again ue loosed ; and even the gods 
shall be no more.” 






LEGENDS OF NOIiSELAND. 


121 



XVII. 

DEFEAT OF HRUNGNER. 

Greatest among the giants of Jotunheim, 
was Hrungner. Even the gods stood in fear of 
him ; for when Thor’s deep thunder rolled out 
across the skies, and the winds rose and the 
clouds grew black, it was Hrungner who, bold 
and defiant, shouted back with roars of scorn¬ 
ful laughter — roars that rivalled in their 
thunder those of the great and mighty Thor. 




122 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ This giant,” said the gods, standing in 
council together,—“ this giant must be over¬ 
come. Too long have we suffered him to 
defy our power; too long have we borne his 
insolence; too long have his threats passed 
unnoticed by Odin the All-Father and by Thor 
the god of Thunder.” 

“ I will go forth,” said Odin, “ upon my 
winged horse, my fleet-footed Sleipner, to meet 
this giant who dares defy the gods of Asgard.” 

Accordingly across the skies, over the sea 
to Jotunheim, rode Odin. 

“ It is a fine steed you ride, good 
stranger,” bellowed Hrungner as Odin drew 
near; “almost as fine a steed as my own 
Goldfax, who can fly through the air and 
swim through the seas with the same ease 
that another steed might travel upon the 
plains of Midgard.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


123 


“ But his speed cannot equal that of 
Sleipner,” answered Odin quietly, his deep 
eyes burning with the light no giant could 
quite comprehend, and beneath which even 
Hrungner quailed at heart. 

“ Sleipner ! Odin ! ” thundered Hrungner. 
“Are you Odin? And is this your Sleipner — 
the winged steed of which the gods of Asgard 
boast ? Away with him! And I upon my 
Goldfax will prove to you that in Jotunheim 
lives one giant who dares challenge even Odin 
and his mighty war-horse to contest. Away! 
Away Odin! Away Sleipner! Away Hrung¬ 
ner ! Away Goldfax ! ” 

And with a shout that echoed even to the 
halls of Asgard, the great giant mounted his 
steed and soon brought him, neck to neck 
with Odin and his immortal Sleipner. 

On, on, across the skies they flew. 


124 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Before their mighty force, the clouds scattered 
hither and thither, striking against each other 
with a crashing sound that to the earth-people 
was like the voice of Thor. 

From the eyes of the steeds the light¬ 
nings flashed; and from their reeking sides 
the foam fell in showers upon the earth below. 
The people, terror-stricken, ran to their caves 
and prayed the gods to protect them from the 
fury of the blast. 

“ It is like no storm we ever knew, ” they 
whispered, one to the other. “ The thunder! 
the lightnings ! the scurrying clouds ! and with 
it all, the roaring winds and the falling of 
great white flakes, now like hail, now like 
snow! Has Odin forgotten his children? 
Have the Frost giants fallen upon Asgard?” 
But now the storm was over. Odin and 
Hrungner both had reached the walls of 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


125 


Asgard. Through the great rolling gateway 
both had burst together; for the steed of the 
bold Hrungner had indeed proved himself 
equal to the snow-white Sieipner, whose 
magic powers no one but Odin fully knew. 

Hrungner, elated with his success, and 
never once dreaming that, had Odin so willed 
it, he, with his brave steed Goldfax, might have 
been left far behind in the race, strode into the 
halls of Asgard and called loudly for food and 
drink and rest. 

All these were granted him, and the giant 
threw himself down upon a golden couch and 
stared insolently upon the gods. All were 
there save Thor. “ And where,” bellowed 
Hrungner, “ is the great god Thor, the mighty 
thunderer who dares defy the Frost giants ; and 
whose strength is boasted greater than that of 
Hrungner, the chief of the mighty Frost giants? 


126 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ Bring him into my presence.” roared 
the giant. “ Let me prove to you that one 
giant at least dares defy even the greatest and 
most warlike of you all.” 

Away upon the sea, Thor heard this 
boast. “Who challenges me and defies my 
power? ” he thundered ; and with the swiftness 
of the wind, hastening upward toward the 
shining city, he burst in upon the giant 
stretched out upon the golden couch. 

“I challenge you!” bellowed the giant, 
springing from his couch and facing the god 
of thunder. 

Thor raised his hammer. The lightnings 
flashed from his eye. “ Halt! ” roared the 
giant. “ Little credit will it be to the god of 
Thunder to fall in battle upon a Frost giant 
unarmed and unprotected. You are a coward! 
Fight me as becomes a great god on equal 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


127 


grounds and under fair conditions. Come to 
me in the land of Jotunheim, and there will I 
challenge you to battle. Then will your 
victory, if you win, lend lustre to your great¬ 
ness ; and the fear of you throughout the land 
of the Frost giants be greater than ever 
before.” 

“ As you say,” answered Thor with a 
sneer. “ Go now, and make ready for the 
holmgang,* in which the insolent, boastful 
Hrungner shall learn the power of the gods 
whom, in his ignorance, he dares defy.” 

Then Hrungner departed from the city of 
Asgard, and assembled the giants together to 
prepare for the coming battle. “ Let us make 
a giant of clay,” and at once every giant in 
Jotunheim fell to work. Whole mountains 
were leveled to the earth, and the great masses 


duel. 


128 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


of stone and earth heaped high ; until, on the 
third day, there stood a giant nine miles high 
and three miles broad, ready to defy the 
power of the Thunder-god when he should 
come. But alas for the heart of this warrior 
of clay! None could be found, either in Mid- 
gard or in Jotunheim, of size proportionate to 
the body of the mighty creation ; and so, in 
despair, the heart of a sheep was chosen, and 
around it the clay warrior was built. 

At the first sound of rolling thunder—by 
which the coming of Thor was announced afar 
off — alas! this heart, fluttering and trembling, 
so shook the mighty form that its spear fell 
from its hand, its knees shook, and Hrungner 
was left to fight his battle alone with the 
angry son of Odin. 

Onward, nearer and nearer, came Thor 
the Terrible. The lightnings flashed and the 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


129 


earth rumbled. Seizing a great mountain of 
flint in his hands, Hrungner waited. His eyes 
burned and his face was set. 

Suddenly, forth from the ground beneath 
his feet, the god of Thunder burst. Hrungner 
sprang forward. With a mighty force he 
hurled the mountain of flint. Thor, with a 
roar, flung his mighty hammer. The two 
crashed together in midair. The flint broke, 
and one half of it was driven into the heavy 
skull of Thor. The hammer, cleaving the 
flint, sped onward, and Hrungner fell dead 
beneath its never-failing blow; but in falling 
his great body lay across the neck of Thor, 
who, stunned by the blow from the flint, had 
fallen, his hammer still clenched firmly in his 
powerful hand. 

For a moment, there was a hush. The 
very sun stood still. Not a sound was heard 


130 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


through Jotunheim. The thunder of battle 
had died away; all the earth was still. 

Then came Magne, a son of Thor. 
“ Why this sudden quiet?” he called. “Why 
has my father’s voice been stilled? Certainly 
the great god Thor has not fallen in battle! ” 

“ In the name of Odin,” he thundered, 
as he saw the Frost giant’s body lying across 
his father’s massive frame,— “in the name of 
Odin and of Thor, what does this mean ? ” 
And, seizing the giant by a foot, he hurled 
him out over the seas. For miles and miles 
the giant’s body cut the air, and then, fall¬ 
ing, sank and was buried beneath the waves. 

Thor staggered to his feet again, and 
with a roar that made the leaves of Ygdrasil 
tremble and shook even the halls of Valhalla, 
set forth across the seas, never once looking 
back towards the land of Jotunheim, whose 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


131 





people for the time, at least, were again sub¬ 
dued by the power of Thor, the god of 
Thunder, — by Thor, the son of Odin the 
All-wise. 











132 


LEGENDS OP NORSELAND. 



XVIII. 

THOR AND SKRYMER. 

There was peace in all the lands; stilled 
were the Frost giants, and in Midgard all was 
happiness. 

“ Come with me, that I may see that you 
do no mischief,” said Thor to Loke, as he 
sprang into his golden chariot, drawn by his 
snow-white goats. 

All day the chariot wheeled on and on 
across the skies. Night fell, and the gods, 







LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


133 


entering a peasant’s cottage, asked for shelter. 
“ Our supper we have with us,” Thor said. 
And taking the goats from the chariot, he 
killed them and placed them before the fire. 

Never had the peasants taken part in 
such a feast. “ It is a feast for the gods,” 
they said; “but pray, how will you finish your 
journey without your goats ? ” 

“ We will attend to that,” said Thor. 
“ Eat what you will, and all you can. I only 
ask that, when the feast is finished, you 
promise to place all the bones together there 
before the door upon the goat skins. See to 
it that no bone is forgotten; and that not one 
— even the smallest — be lost or broken.” 

The peasants promised; the meat was 
eaten, and in due time the household went to 
bed and to sleep. 

Morning came; and with the first flush 


134 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


of light Thor arose, and, with his magic 
hammer, sat down beside the heap of bones, 
that lay upon the goat skins before the door. 

“ Kling ! Kling ! Kling!” sounded the 
hammer, striking in turn each little bone; then 
the two goats leaped forth, as white and 
plump and round as ever, and as ready to spin 
across the waters with the golden chariot of 
their master. 

But alas, one goat was lame. He held 
up one tiny foot and moaned. “ Some one of 
you,” roared Thor, “ has broken a bone. Did 
I not command that you be careful, and see 
that every bone should be placed, uninjured, 
upon the goat skins ? ” 

The peasants shook with fear. They 
knew now who this strange guest might be. 
“ It is Thor! ” they whispered to each other. 
“ And that is the mighty hammer whose aim 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


135 


never fails, and whose force is death to all 
upon whom it falls ! ” 

“ O thou great god Thor,” cried the 
peasants, “ spare us ! Indeed had we known, 
not one bone would we have taken in our 
unhappy fingers ; and all night long would we 
have watched beside the goat skins that no 
harm should come to them. Spare us, O 
spare us, great Thor! Take all we have — 
our house, our cattle, our children, everything 
— only spare our lives to us ! ” 

Thor seized his hammer in his hand. 
His great knuckles grew white, so strong was 
his giant hold upon the handle. The peasants 
sank upon their knees. Their faces dropped 
and their eyes closed. Shaking with terror, 
they awaited the falling of the hammer. 

“ Up, up, ye peasants,” thundered Thor. 
This offense I forgive. Your lives too, shall 


136 


LEGENDS OF NOR^ELAND. 


be spared you ; but I will carry away with me 
these children of yours,—Thjalfe and Roskva ; 
and they shall serve me in my journeys across 
the lands and over the seas.” 

“ The goats I leave with you; and I 
charge you, by your lives see that no harm 
conies to them in any way. Come Thjalfe, 
come Roskva, place yourselves before the 
chariot, and bear me quickly across the seas.” 

All day long the chariot wheeled on and 
on, the children never tiring, until, at nightfall, 
they found themselves upon the shores of the 
country of the Frost giants. 

Plunging into a deep forest, they hurried 
through and came out into a great plain 
beyond. Here they found a house, the very 
doors of which were as high as the mountains 
and as broad as the broadest river. 

“We will rest here,” said Thor, and, 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


137 


spreading the great skins which they found 
near the doorway, they made for themselves 
beds, and soon were fast asleep. 

At midnight they were awakened by a 
terrible roar. The whole house shook with its 
vibrations. Thor, seizing his hammer in his 
strong right hand, strode to the door. The 
whole earth trembled, but in the darkness 
even Thor could not see beyond the doorway. 

Hour after hour he stood there, listening. 
Slowly, at last, the dawn began to come; the 
sun rose, and there, just at the edge of the 
forest, Thor saw the outstretched body of a 
giant, whose head was in itself a small moun¬ 
tain, and whose feet stretched away into the 
valley below. 

“And it is you, then, that have rocked 
the very earth with your giant snores, and 
have taken from me my night of rest," thought 


138 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Thor, when he saw the giant form stretched 
out before him. 

With one angry stride Thor reached the 
side of the sleeping giant. Raising his 
hammer a full mile into the air, he smote the 
giant full upon the skull, with a crash that 
sounded like the fall of a mighty oak. 

“What is that?” asked the giant, opening 
his sleepy eyes. “Indeed, Thor, are you here? 
Something awoke me. I think an acorn must 
have dropped upon my head,” said the giant, 
gathering himself to rise. 

“Go to sleep again,” growled Thor; “it 
isn’t morning yet. I am going to sleep 
myself.” 

A few minutes and the snores of the 
giant rang through the air again. 

“ Now we will see,” thought Thor. Again 
he crept to the giant’s side. Lifting his 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


139 


hammer, this time two miles in the air, he 
brought it down upon the giants skull with a 
crash that sounded like the breaking of the ice 
and the roaring of the torrent in a mighty river. 

“ What is that ? ” muttered the giant, only 
half awake. A leaf must have fallen upon my 
forehead. I will take myself out into the 
plain where I can sleep in peace.” 

“ Go to sleep,” answered Thor; “ it is 
nearly morning, and will be time to wake up 
for the day before you reach the plain.” 

Again the giant fell asleep; and again the 
snoring rang out upon the air. “ He shall not 
escape me this time,” whispered Thor, creep¬ 
ing again to the giants side. Raising his 
hammer, this time three miles in the air, he 
crashed it down upon the forehead of the 
giant with such force and fury that the very 
heavens reverberated; and the earth people, 


140 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


springing frightened from their deep sleep, 
called to each other, “ The dwarfs are at their 
forges! Did you not feel the earth shake and 
the mountains tremble?” 

Well, well,” droned the sleepy giant; 
“ the moss from the trees falls upon my face 
and wakes me. It is nearly sunrise, and I may 
as well arise and go on to Utgard. And you, 
Thor,— I am told you, too, are journeying 
towards the land of Utgard. But I must 
hurry on. I will meet you there; but let me 
give you warning that we are a race of giants 
of no mean size. And great though you are, 
it would be as well for you that you boast not 
of your power among us. Even your mighty 
hammer might fail to do its work among 
giants of such strength and stature as those 
of Skrymer’s race.” 

There was a sneer on Skrymer’s face as 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


141 


he said this; but before Thor could raise his 
hammer to punish him for his insolence, he 
had crossed the great plain, and was already 
miles away. T. hor sat down beside the forest. 
He was mortified, and vexed, and puzzled. 
What did it mean ? Had his hammer lost its 
magic power ? Was the giant Skrymer 
immortal ? He could not tell. There was a 
heavy cloud upon his face as he set forth 
again upon his journey. The little servants 
shook with fear; even Loke kept silent, and 
said not one word the live-long day. 







A giant’s home. 





































































































































































LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


143 



XIX. 


THOR AND THE UTGARD-KING. 

Travelling on and on, through many days 
and many nights, Thor and his companions 
came to a great castle. Its pinnacles reached 
far up among the clouds, and its great gate¬ 
ways were broad even like the horizon itself. 

In between the bars crept Thor and Loke 
and the children Thjalfe and Roska. 

“ Let us enter the castle,” said Thor 
grimly. “ It must be the palace of the king— 



144 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


the Utgard-Loke — whose threats have defied 
even the All-wisdom and the All-power of the 
mighty Odin. 

At these words the walls of the castle 
trembled. The pillars of frost and the great 
arches of ice glittered and glistened. Thjalfe 
and Roska grew white with fear. “ We hear 
your voice,” thundered Thor; “ but we have 
no fear of you even though you shake the 
castle walls until they fall. And behold, we 
dare come into your very presence, thou 
terrible king of Utgard!” 

The great king showed his glittering 
teeth. His brow grew black with rage. 

“ This is Thor, the god of Thunder,” he 
sneered: “ and so small are you that you can 
creep through the bars of our gateway, pass 
unnoticed by our sentinels, even into the very 
presence of the king ! ” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


145 


Then Utgard-Loke— for this was the 
king’s name — threw back his head and 
laughed until the whole earth shook; trees 
were uprooted, and avalanches of ice and snow, 
pouring down into valleys, buried hundreds of 
the little people of Midgard. 

Thor clenched his hammer. He dared 
not thunder; even his lightnings were as 
nothing in this great palace hall and before 
the terrible voice of the Utgard-king. 

“ But perhaps you are greater than you 
look,” continued the king, roaring again at his 
own wit. “ Tell me what great feats you can 
accomplish ; for no one is allowed entrance to 
this castle who cannot perform great deeds.” 

“I can perform great deeds — many cf 
them,” boasted Loke, nowise abashed, even in 
the presence of the terrible king. “ I can eat 
faster than any creature in Midgard, in 


146 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Utgard, or even in Asgard, the home of the 
gods.” 

Again the king roared; and, placing 
before him a great wooden trough heaped 
high with food, he commanded his servant 
Loge to challenge Loke to the contest. 

But alas for Loke, although the food 
disappeared before him like fields of grain 
beneath the scythe of steel, yet before the 
task was half begun, Loge had swallowed 
food, and trough, and all! 

The king roared louder still; and Loke, 
never before beaten by giant power, shrank 
away, angry and threatening. 

“But I,” said Thjalfe, “can run. I can 
outrun any creature that lives on land or sea.” 

Then Thjalfe was placed beside a tiny 
little pigmy—Huge he was called; but hardly 
had they run a pace before Huge had shot so 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


147 


far ahead that Thjalfe, crestfallen, went and 
hid himself behind the great ice pillar that 
stood outside the castle gate. 

And now Thor rose to his feet and drew 
himself up to his greatest height; but even 
that seemed as nothing compared with the 
enormous stature of the Utgard-king. He 
clenched the hammer tightly and thundered as 
never he had thundered before. The tiny 
fringe of icicles trembled. Then Utgard-Loke 
laughed; and with his thunder the whole 
castle rocked and reeled. 

“And will Thor contest with the power 
of Utgard ? ” asked the king. “ I will,” roared 
Thor, and there was a fire in his eye that even 
Utgard shrank before. 

But Utgard only roared in turn and 
brought to Thor a great horn, filled to its brim 
with sparkling water. 


148 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ Drink,” said he; “ and if one half the 
power is yours that Odin claims, you will 
empty the horn at a single draught.” 

Thor seized the horn. One long, deep 
draught, such as no mortal, no giant, nor even 
another god could have drawn — and the horn 
was hardly one drop less full. 

The king roared till the icicles and the 
fringes of frost, swaying and rocking beneath 
the thunder, fell with a crash upon the palace 
floor. 

“Can the great god Thor boast no greater 
power than that? Once more, thou greatest 
of all the sons of Odin — once more lift the 
horn in thy mighty hands and show us the 
greatness of the gods of Asgard.” 

Thor, stung by the sneer of the Utgard- 
king, raised the horn again to his lips; and 
calling upon the name of Odin and all the 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


149 


gods of the shining city, drank again. Higher 
and higher he raised the horn, deeper and 
deeper drew he the draught. But alas, again, 
when the horn was lowered, the waters were 
no lower than before. 

“You seem not so great as we the frost 
giants have believed,” said the king with a 
cold sneer. 

Thors anger rose. His blood boiled 
with rage and fury. With a burst of thunder 
and a flash of lightning that shattered the 
pillars of the great hall, he seized the horn 
again. Three long hours passed. Utgard- 
Loke trembled with fear and dread; for never 
for one second had the angry god taken the 
horn from his lips. “The ruin of the Utgard 
kingdom is come,” he groaned. “ There is no 
hope for victory over such a god. The horn 
— even the magic horn — will fail before the 


150 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


might of this fierce and awful Thor, the god 
of Thunder.” 

Then Thor lifted the horn from his lips. 
Defiance flashed from his eye. The king of 
the Frost giants trembled. Both looked into 
the horn. Alas for Thor! Even now hardly 
could it be counted one quarter emptied. 
Darkness gathered over the strong god’s face. 
Courage sprang into the eyes of the king. 
“ Let not your valor fail you,” said the king, 
taking the horn from the hand of Thor. “You 
are great — you have proved it, in that you 
have, even in so small a degree as this, 
emptied the horn from which none but a god 
could have quaffed one drop. It is only that 
your greatness is less than you have boasted, 
and less than we have believed it to be.” 

“ I will not stand defeated,” thundered 
Thor. “ Bring before me another challenge. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


151 


I will not go forth until the giants of Utgard 
have indeed known and felt the power of Thor, 
the god whose lightnings rend the skies, and 
whose thunders rock the very mountains of 
the earth.” 

“ Once more, then, shall you contend for 
power,” said the Utgard-king. “And this time 
with Elle, the toothless giant of endless years, 
before whose power bend all the strongest 
sons of Midgard, and before whom, in some 
far off day, even the gods of Asgard shall bow 
as powerless as the children of Midgard.” 

Thor sprang upon the giant Elle. Like 
a demon of the under world he fought, and for 
a time even this All-conquering giant swayed 
before the wild madness of his bursts of 
thunder, and his crashing, hissing bolts of fire. 
But alas for Thor! Even his godlike strength 
was doomed to fail him. He trembled; his 


152 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


sight vanished; a strange chill settled ovei 
him, and he sank, conquered, before the power 
of the giant Elle. 

And now the night had fallen upon the 
land. The light had faded from the mountain 
tops ; and the chill of night was in the frosty 
air. Exhausted, the great god wrapped him* 
self about and sank into heavy sleep. And 
his dreams were of great battles, of terrible 
foes, and of the last great day which, sometime 
in the ages to come, should fall upon the city 
of the gods, and in which even the power 
of Odin should fail, and the light go out 
from all the earth. All night long these 
dreams haunted the great heart of Thor; and 
in the morning the people in Midgard said, 
“ It was a strange night. Through all the 
hours of darkness, the thunders rolled in the 
distance, and the pale lightnings flashed 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


153 


among the mountain peaks beyond the 
seas/’ 

In the morning, even with the first rays 
of light, Thor, with Loke and Thjalfe and 
Roskva, set forth upon their journey home¬ 
ward. There was a terrible blackness upon 
the face of Thor, and the thunders rumbled 
deeply. Never before had Thor known the 
bitterness of defeat, and he returned to Asgard 
and to Odin sick at heart. 

“ Lose not thy courage, Thor,” said the 
All-wise. “ Know that thou art not even now 
defeated in any test of true strength. Utgard- 
Loke has triumphed to be sure; but even he 
trembles now, and has closed the doors of his 
castle, and has set thousands upon thousands 
of sentinels to watch against thy return. 

The horn from which thou didst drink 
reached far down into the depths of the sea; 


154 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


and the people of Midgard even now throng 
the shores and wonder what power in heaven 
or in earth can so have shrunken the great 
waters of the sea. 

Loge, with whom Loke contended, was 
none less than Wild Fire; and Huge was 
Thought itself. Even the gods, even Odin 
himself, with these would but contend in vain. 
And Elle — it is indeed as Utgard-Loke said 
— no power in heaven itself can equal hers. 
She is the all-powerful, the never-failing, the 
ever-present Old Age. All the people of the 
earth, all the gods of Asgard — aye, even the 
Earth and Asgard must one day fall before 
her mighty will. That you contended even as 
you did, has driven terror deep into the hearts 
of the cruel Frost giants; nor do they doubt 
that you are the terrible god of Thunder, the 
greatest of all the sons of Odin.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND 


155 



XX, 

THOR AND THE MIDGARD SERPENT. 

With these words of Odin, Thor s courage 
rose. “ Bring me my hammer,” he called to 
Sif, “ and again will I go forth into the realms 
of the Frost giants.” 

The great Odin smiled, “ Fear not, my 
son. Remember there can be no defeat to 
Thor, the son of Odin, whose mighty hand 
holds firm the terrible hammer forged by the 
dwarfs of the under world.” 



156 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


Then Thor sprang into his chariot. 
“ Away, away,” he thundered, “ to the home of 
Hymer—the hateful, boastful Hymer! Away 
to the land of the Frost giants ! Once, and for 
all, Thor will prove to them the power and the 
terror of the gods of Asgard.” 

The wheels of the chariot rumbled and 
rolled. From their spokes the lightnings 
flashed. With the speed of Thought itself, it 
hissed and whistled through the air. The 
clouds, scattering, raised a mighty wind. 

In Midgard the leaves ran like fire before 
the gale; the trees rocked; and ever and 
anon the moaning wind rose and fell like 
the voice of a mighty tempest. 

“ It is the Valkyries ! ” the people of Mid¬ 
gard said. “Always does the wind rise; always 
do the clouds hurry across the skies when the 
Valkyries set forth to battle. Somewhere 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


157 


there is war in our fair earth; somewhere 
heroes are falling on the bloody battlefield.” 

For, in all this time, there had come to be 
many people in Midgard. The children of 
Ask and Embla had become men and women, 
had grown old, and their children, too, had 
become men and women. 

And there were wars in the land. War¬ 
riors in the east fought those in the west; 
those in the north fought those in the south. 

But the warriors were brave men; and 
over every battle Odin watched, grinding the 
spears, now shielding and protecting, now 
forcing the warriors into the very hottest 
of the battle. And when the battle was over, 
and all was quiet, when the great sun had 
sunk behind the hills of Jotunheim, and 
the soft moon shone down upon the battle¬ 
field, then Odin would call to the Valkyries, 


158 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


and bid them go down into Midgard and 
bring with them to Valhalla all who had 
fallen bravely fighting. For this was the 
heros reward. With this hope he entered 
battle; with this hope he fought; with this 
hope he turned his dying eyes towards Mt. 
Ida and thanked the All-father that now he, 
too, might enter into the joys of Asgard and 
know the glory of immortal life in the golden 
halls of Valhalla. 

And now the winds had died away; the 
clouds were at rest; there was peace over 
Midgard. For the chariot had reached the 
home of the Frost giants, and Thor had 
entered the great rock-bound castle of the 
giant Hymer. 

“ Let us go out upon the sea to fish,” said 
Thor to the dread giant, with whom he longed 
to measure power. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


159 


Seizing the oars, Thor himself rowed the 
great boat out into the sea. “ Give me the 
oars, bellowed Hymer; “you have already 
rowed a long way and must be wearied.” 

“ I wearied ! ” thundered Thor. “ Indeed 
I have not rowed one half the distance. I 
shall row even into the realm of the Midgard 
Serpent, whose length lies coiled round about 
Midgard, and whose home is deep down 
beneath the raging waters. There only 
shall we find fish worthy of the bait of a god.” 

Hymer trembled. He feared the Mid¬ 
gard Serpent, whose great coils so lashed the 
waters of the ocean that they rose, white with 
foam, even to the very mountain tops. “ The 
fishing just here has never failed. There is 
no need to row farther into the ocean,” said 
Hymer, hoping to dissuade the god from 
rowing farther from the shores of Jotunheim. 


160 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ But I must fish in mid-ocean, and in the 
deepest of the waters,” was Thor’s reply. 

For hours and hours they rowed. The 
mountain tops grew dimmer and dimmer in 
the blue distance; no land could be seen ; the 
waters sparkled and shone on every side as 
far as the eye could reach. 

“ We will make this our fishing place,” 
said Thor, at last, throwing down his oars and 
preparing the great cable that should serve 
him for a line. This he gave into the hands of 
the trembling giant, and prepared for himself 
another. The hours passed, but no fish had 
been drawn into the boat. 

“ Had you listened to me,” thundered 
Hymer, “ our boat might long before this have 
been filled with the fish I have never failed to 
catch in waters nearer the shores of the land 
of the Frost giants.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


161 


“ Do you think a god would be content 
with less than the greatest fish in all the sea?” 
thundered Thor. “ Do you not know I shall 
bring to this boat’s edge the terrible Midgard 
Serpent itself?” 

And even as he spoke he gathered in his 
line, and dashed upon the boat floor a whale 
of such enormous size that even the giant 
looked with amazement upon so terrible a 
display of the fisherman’s strength and power. 
Surely this must be Thor himself! 

“ The whale is yours,” muttered Thor, 
unfastening his line and throwing it overboard 
again. “ I have no care for fish as small as 
this.” 

Suddenly there was a rush of waters. It 
was as if a terrible tempest had burst upon 
the sea. The waters seethed and foamed. 
The great waves rose mountain high. The 


162 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


boat rocked and reeled, and the green waters, 
pouring over its sides, filled it so that the 
great whale floated out upon the sea. 

“It is the Midgard Serpent!” roared Thor; 
and his mighty voice, rising even above the 
rush of the great sea, mingled with the thun¬ 
der of the breaking waves and echoed out to 
the shores of the farthest lands. 

Thor sprang from the boat and planted 
himself firmly upon the great rocks beneath 
the sea. The giant, dumb with terror, clung 
to the sides of the rocking boat. On, on came 
the serpent, nearer and nearer, the roaring 
waves and the heaping foam bursting closer 
and closer upon the mountain-like boat that 
tossed now like seaweed upon the angry 
waters. 

One burst like thunder, and the terrible 
serpents head rose above the foam and 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


163 


glistened in the light. Thor sprang forward; 
and, with his mighty arm, threw the cable 
about the slimy neck of the Midgard Serpent 
and dragged him to the boat’s edge. The 
giant sprang to his feet. 

“ Give me my hammer! ” thundered the 

god. 

“ I will not! ” thundered the giant; and 
with one quick bound he sprang forward, 
raised his shining sword, and with a sweep 
miles high, cut the great cable which held the 
writhing serpent. 

Another roar, and the great serpent 
arched his back even to the blue dome of the 
sky above. Then, with a hiss that sounded 
through Midgard and even up to the shining 
city of the fair Mt. Ida, he shot down beneath 
the waters, and over him closed the angry 


waves. 


164 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


The foam dashed mountains high; the 
caves howled and boomed; the skies echoed 
crash on crash ; and the whole earth trembled 
with the upheaval of the troubled waters. 
A rushing back, a heaping up, a breaking of 
great waves — and never again, by man or 
giant or god, was the loathsome serpent seen 
above the waters, until on that last sad, fateful 
day when the light had gone out from the sun, 
and the dread chill of Ragnarok had fallen 
even upon Valhalla and the beautiful shining 
city of Asgard. 










LEGENDS OE NORSELAND. 


165 



A NORSE GALLEY, 


VALKYRIES’ SONG. 

The Sea-king looked o’er the brooding wave; 

He turned to the dusky shore, 

And there seemed, through the arch of a tide-worn cave 
A gleam, as of snow, to pour; 

And forth, in watery light, 

Moved phantoms, dimly white, 

Which the garb of woman bore. 

Slowly they moved to the billow side; 

And the forms, as they grew more clear, 

Seemed each on a tall, pale steed to ride, 

And a shadowy crest to rear, 







LEGENDS OF NOIiSELAND. 


And to beckon with faint hand, 

From the dark and rocky strand, 

And to point a gleaming spear. 

Then a stillness on his spirit fell, 

Before tlT unearthly train, 

For he knew Valhalla’s daughters well. 

The Choosers of the slain ! 

And a sudden rising breeze 
Bore, across the moaning seas. 

To his ear their thrilling strain. 
***** 

u Regner ! tell thy fair-haired bride 
She must slumber at thy side ! 

Tell the brother of thy breast, 

Even for him thy grave hath rest! 

Tell the raven steed which bore thee. 

When the wild wolf fled before thee, 

He too with his lord must fall,— 

There is room in Odin’s Hall! ” 
***** 

There was arming heard on land and wave. 
When afar the sunlight spread, 

And the phantom forms of the tide-worn cave 
With the mists of morning fled; 

But at eve, the kingly hand 
Of the battle-axe and brand, 

Lay cold on a pile of dead ! — Hemans. 


LEGENDS OE NOKSELAND. 


167 



XXI. 

THE DYING BALDUR. 

Ages upon ages had rolled away. And 
now the day of sorrow, which always Odin 
had known must come, drew near. 

Already the god of song had gone with 
his beautiful wife Idun down into the dark 
valley of death; and there was a new strange 
rustle among the leaves of Ygdrasil, like the 
rustling of leaves that were dead. 

Odin’s face grew sad; and, try as he 
would, he could not join with the happy gods 
about him in their joys and festal games. 


168 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ Odin,” said Frigg one day, “ tell me 
what grieves thee; what weighs thee down 
and puts such sadness into thine eyes and 
heart.” 

“ Baldur himself shall tell you all,” 
answered Odin sadly. 

Then Baldur seated himself in the midst 
of the gods and said: “ Always, since Odin 
drank at the Well of Wisdom, and learned the 
secrets of the past and of the future, has he 
known that a time would come when the light 
must go out from Baldur’s eyes; and he, 
although a god, must go down into the dark 
valley. Now that time draws near. Already 
have Brage and Idun gone from us ; and with 
them have gone song and youth. Soon will 
Baldur go, and with him must go the light 
and warmth he has always been so glad to 
bring to Asgard and to Midgard both.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


169 


“O Baldur! Baldur! Baldur! My child ! 
my child! my child!” cried Frigg. “This 
cannot be ! this shall not be! I will go down 
from Asgard. I will go up and down the 
earth, and every rock and tree and plant shall 
pledge themselves to do no harm to thee.” 

“ Dear Mother Frigg,” sighed Baldur, 
“you cannot change what is foretold. From 
the beginning of time this was decreed, that 
one day the light should go out from heaven 
and the twilight of the gods should fall.” 

There was a long silence in the hall of 
Asgard. No god had courage to speak. 
Their hearts were heavy, and they had no wish 
to speak. 

The sun sank behind the western hills. 
Its rich sunset glow spread over the golden 
city and over the beautiful earth below. Then 
darkness followed slowly, slowly creeping, 


170 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


creeping on, up the mountain side, across the 
summit, until even the shining city stood dark 
and shadowy beneath the gathering twilight. 

“ Like this, some day, the twilight will 
fall upon our city,” said Odin; “and it will 
never, never rise again.” 

The mother heart of Frigg would not 
accept even Odin’s word. And when the sun’s 
first rays shot up above the far-off hills, Frigg 
stole forth from Asgard down the rainbow 
bridge to Midgard. 

To every lake, and river, and sea, she 
hurried, and said: “ Promise me, O waters, 
that Baldur’s light shall never go out because 
of you.” 

“We promise,” the waters answered. 
And Frigg hurried on to the metals. « Prom¬ 
ise me, O metals, that Baldur’s light shall 
never go out because of you.” 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


171 


“ We promise,” answered the metals. 
And Frigg hurried on to the minerals. 
“ Promise me, O minerals,” she said, “ that 
Baldur s light shall never go out because of 
you.” 



We promise,” answered the minerals. 
And Frigg hurried on to the fire, the earth, 
the stones, the trees, the shrubs, the grasses, 
the birds, the beasts, the reptiles; and even to 





172 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


the abode of pale disease she went. Of each 
she asked the same earnest, anxious question; 
and from each she received the same kind, 
honest answer. 

As the sun sank behind the high peaks of 
the Frost giants’ homes, Frigg, radiant and 
happy, her eyes bright and her heart alive 
with hope, sped up the rainbow bridge. Tri¬ 
umphant, she hurried into the great hall to 
Odin and Baldur. 

“ Be happy again, O Odin! Be happy 
again, O Baldur! There is no danger, no 
sorrow to come to us from anything in the 
earth or under the earth. For every tree has 
promised me; and every rock and every metal; 
every animal and every bird. Even the 
waters and the fire have promised that never 
harm through them shall come to Baldur.” 

But, alas, for poor Frigg. One little 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


173 


weed, a wee little weed, hidden beneath a rock, 
she had overlooked. Loke, who had followed 
closely upon her in all her wanderings through 
the day, had not failed to notice this oversight 
of Frigg’s. His wicked face shone with glee. 
His eyes gleamed; and as the radiant Frigg 
sped up the rainbow bridge, he hurried away 
to his home among the Frost giants to tell 
them of the little weed which, by and by, 
should work such harm to Baldur, in shutting 
out his life and light from Asgard and the 
earth. 

The ages rolled on. Every one in 
Asgard, save Odin, had long ago thrown off 
the shadow of fear. “ No harm can come to 
Baldur,” they would say; and all save Odin 
believed it. 

But a day came when Odin, looking 
down into the home of the dead, saw there the 


174 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


spirits moving about, hastening hither and 
thither. 

“ Something is happening there in the 
pale valley,” said Odin. “ They are preparing 
for the coming of another shade. And it 
must be some great one who is to come. See 
how great the preparation is they make.” 

“ We prepare for the coming of Baldur,” 
answered the shades as Odin came upon them, 
busy in their work. “ We prepare a throne 
for Baldur. We prepare a throne for Baldur.” 

“For Baldur?” asked Odin, his heart 
sinking. “ For Baldur ! ” chanted the shades. 
“For Baldur! Baldur cometh! Baldur cometh!” 

And Odin, his godlike heart faint and 
sick at the thought, turned away and went 
slowly up the rainbow bridge. 

There, in the great garden of the gods, he 
found Thor and Baldur and their brother 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


175 


Hodor playing at tests of strength. Behind 
Hodor, invisible, stood Loke. In his hand he 
held a spear. 

“ Shame upon you, Hodor,” whispered 
Loke, “that you, the strong and mighty Hodor, 
cannot overcome Baldur in a test of strength. 
Baldur may be beautiful and sunny, and he is 
a great joy to the world ; that we know. But 
what is he compared with Hodor for strength?” 

“ But the spears will not touch him. See 
how they glance away. Indeed it is true: 
Light cannot be pierced.” answered Hodor, 
good-naturedly. 

“ Take this spear,” said Loke, quietly. 
“ It is less clumsy than those you throw.” 

Hodor took it, never thinking of any 
harm. Alas for Baldur and Asgard and all 
the happy smiling Earth! It was a spear 
tipped with the mistletoe — the one plant that 



BALDUR, THE BEAUTIFUL, IS DEAD, 
































LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


177 


Frigg had failed to find. The one plant that 
had not promised to do no harm to Baldur. 

Quickly the spear flew through the air. 
One second, and Baldur the Summer Spirit, 
Baldur the Light of the Earth fell — dead. 

“ O, Asgard ! Baldur is dead ! ” groaned 
Odin. “ O Asgard, Asgard ! Baldur is dead ! ” 
Hodor, Thor, the gods, one and all, stood 
pale and white. A terrible fear settled over 
their faces. They shook with terror. 

And even as they stood there, speechless 
in their grief, a twilight dimness began to fall 
lightly, lightly over all. The shining pave¬ 
ments grew less bright; the blue of the great 
arch overhead deepened; and in the valleys of 
Midgard there were long black shadows. 
Baldur was dead. The light had failed. The 
golden age was at an end. Now, even the 
gods must die. 


178 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



XXII. 


THE PUNISHMENT OF LORE. 


“ It is Loke that has done this! ” thun¬ 
dered Thor, seizing the great hammer in his 
clenched fists. “ Nor will the gods of Asgard 
forgive this crime. No promise of his, no 
begging, no pleading shall save him from the 
punishment that belongs to him. 

“O Baldur, Baldur! That I had slain 
the evil Loke ages upon ages ago — when he 
stole the hair from the glorious Sif; when he 




LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


179 


stole the necklace from the beautiful Freyja; 
when he carried Idun and the Apples of Life 
away into the home of the Frost giants; when 
he stung the dwarf and broke short the handle 
of my mighty hammer. Had I slain him 
then, this sorrow need not have come to us. 
O Baldur, Baldur ! ” 

And the whole earth shook with the grief 
of Thor. The skies grew black. The wind 
shrieked. The lightnings flashed across the 
sky. His tears fell in torrents down the 
mountain sides; trees were swept away, and 
the swollen rivers rushed and roared along 
their course. 

Never, even in the memory of the gaunt 
old giant at the Well of Wisdom, had such a 
storm of wind and rain and thunder and 
lightning been known. The earth-people fled 
to the mountain caves in terror. 


180 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


“ It is the wrath of Thor! ” cried Loke, 
gasping with dread. “ Let me hide myself till 
it is over.” And changing himself into a fish, 
he dived deep into the great seething mass of 
angry waters. 

But Thor and Odin were close upon him. 
The fiery eye of Thor had caught the sparkle 
of its shiny coat as the great fish shot down 
from the mountain side into the sea. Then, 
too, of what use was it to hide from the great, 
all-seeing eye of Odin ? Did he not see and 
hear all sights and sounds ? And, more than 
that, did he not know all things even from the 
beginning ? 

“We will take a great net, and we will 
drag the sea,” said Odin quietly. 

Loke, heard these words and trembled. 
He hid himself beneath the sea-weed; but so 
muddy were the waters that he was driven out 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


181 


to breathe. The great net was spread. Held 
by the hands of Odin and of Thor, there was 
no escape for Loke. Sullenly he allowed the 
net to close over him. There was no other 
way; for it stretched from shore to shore and 
from above the waters even to the ocean bed. 

And so, at last, because it was to be, the 
fish held; and Loke was in the power of the 
angry Thor. 

“ Come back,” commanded Odin, “ to your 
own shape and size.” Loke obeyed; and in 
his own form was borne to Asgard. The 
angry gods fell, one and all, upon him. Not 
one showed pity for him. They hated him. 
And well they might; for had he not slain 
Baldur, and so loosed the power of the Frost 
giants upon their shining city. 

“Let him be bound! Let him be bound!” 
they cried. 


182 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 



LOKE IN CHAINS. 

From an Ancient Scandinavian Stone. 


“ Let him be bound even as the Fenris- 
wolf is bound ! ” 


“ Let him be bound with iron fetters 1” 












LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


183 


“ Let him be nailed to the great rocks in 
the sea! ” 

“ Let a poisonous serpent hang over him ; 
and let the serpent drop, moment by moment, 
through all the time to come, his burning 
poison upon him ! Let him lie there, chained 
and suffering till the last great day! ” 

“All this shall be,” thundered Thor. And 
thus it was that the cruel, evil-hearted, peace- 
destroyer Loke, suffered ages upon ages of 
punishment for his malice and his crime. 



















LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


185 



XXIII. 

THE DARKNESS THAT FELL ON 
ASGARD. 


The gods had avenged themselves upon 
the cruel Peace-destroyer, and he lay suffering 
the tortures they had put upon him. 

But even this could not bring back the 
sunny god, the happy, cheerful, life-giving 
Baldur. Brage had gone, and there was no 
sound of music in Asgard; Idun had gone, 
and signs of age were again creeping over the 




186 


LEGENDS OF NOKSELAND. 


faces of the gods; now Baldur was gone, and 
with him the long light and warm softness of 
the summer time. 

“ He may come back,” Frigg would say; 
and every morning she strained her eyes to 
see if he had risen from behind the far-off 
hills with the soft light she had learned to 
know so well. “ Baldur is late,” she would 
say, as the days rolled on. 

But all this time, from the cold north 
land, the Frost giants, triumphant, were 
drawing near. Their chill breath was in the 
air. The days grew short; the nights grew 
long. The rivers were locked in ice. Great 
drifts of snow were everywhere. The sky was 
gray; and there were no stars. The sun 
shone pale and white through the dull clouds 
and the blinding drifts of snow. It grew 
bitter, bitter cold. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


187 


“ The Fimbul-winter! ” whispered the 
earth-people. “Has the Fimbul-winter come?” 
And Odin answered, “ Yes; it is true. The 
Fimbul-winter, foretold by the Norns, even 
from the beginning of time, has come. Soon 
the great wolf will spring forth from the under 
world, and he will seize upon the sun and 
devour it. Then dense darkness will fall upon 
us; and Ragnarok — the end of all things — 
will be upon us.” 

And it came to pass as Odin said. One 
day there was heard a mighty rumbling. 
This time it was not the thunder from the 
mighty hammer of great Thor. His hands 
were frozen; nor had he heart to try to wield 
his hammer. 

The thunder and the rumble came this 
time from within the earth. The great earth 
trembled and shook. Great gaping mouths 


188 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


opened and swallowed up the children; the 
mountains crumbled and fell; the great 
serpent lashed the sea; the great rocks rocked 
and swayed and tore themselves apart. Loke 
and the Fenris-wolf, freed from their fetters, 
sprang forth, burning with hate and wild for 
vengeance. The Frost giants already were 
upon the rainbow bridge. A terrible battle 
followed. 

The gods fell, one by one: Thor by the 
deadly flood of poison from the Midgard 
serpent; Tyre in the great jaws of the Fenris- 
wolf, who, ages before, had torn from him his 
strong right hand. 

And now the battle was over. The gods 
lay dead — even Odin. The shining city of 
Asgard was a blackened, smoking ruin; the 
rainbow bridge was gone. The giants sent 
forth their cold winds, howling with cruel glee. 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


189 


Loke s evil heart was glad; the great serpent 
lashed the waters mountain high; and the 
earth-people perished in the flood. The Fen- 
ris-wolf stretched its great jaw from heaven to 
earth and shook the skies. 

There was a strange hush ! A great ball 
of fire had fallen upon the battle field. There 
was a sudden rush of air! A great wave of 
heat spread out across all space! A burst 
of thunder! A crackling as of fire! Then 
one hiss, and the whole earth was one great 
scorching blaze. 

One second— a fierce red tongue of flame 
had shot up the trunk of Ygdrasil, and it fell, 
a mass of blackened ashes. The sea hissed 
and steamed. The earth melted. The Frost 
giants, Loke, the serpent, the Fenris-wolf, all, 
all were wrapped in flame. A second more, 
and there was no living thing in all the earth. 


190 


LEGENDS OF NORSELAND. 


For Ragnarok, the Reign of Fire, had come; 
and with it came an end to Life — and end 
alike to gods and giants; an end to all 
creatures of the land and sea; an end even to 
the great earth itself. 







VOCABULARY. 


As'gard : ( s like z) Abode of the gods. 

Ask : The first woman ; made from a tree. 

Baldur: (Bal'-dur) The god of summer sunshine. 

Bauge : (Bough-ge: hard g) A giant brother of Suttung. 

Brfi-ge : fa as in far : hard ge) A son of Odin and famed for wis¬ 
dom and eloquence. 

Brok : (pronounced Brock) A dwarf. 

Bolverk: (o like e in heard, Bel-verk) A name assumed by Odin. 
Elle: Old age. 

Embla : The first man; made from a tree. 

Fenris wolf : Monster wolf, son of Loki. 

Frigg : Wife of Odin. 

Frey : (Fray) Ruler over the light elves. 

Frey-ja : (e as in let, j like y , Frey-ya) Sister of Frey ; half the 
fallen in battle belonged to her. 

Firnbul: The terrible winter just before the destruction of the 
earth. 

Gold-fax: Hrungner’s horse. 

Huge : (Ho6-ge : hard g ) Thought. 

Hodor: (o as e in heard, Hb'-der) The slayer of Baldur. 
Hrung-ner : (Hroon'-gner) A giant. 

i 



II 


VOCABULARY. 


Hy’-mer: A giant, owner of the kettle, Mile-deep. 

Idun : (Idoon) Keeper of the Apples of Youth. 

I-fing : Name of a river. 

Jotunheim: ( j like y, o like e in heard: Y4r-toon-heem) Home 
of the giants. 

Loke, or Loki: (Lo-ke) The evil giant god. 

Loge : (Lo-ge : hard g ) Wild-fire. 

Mld-gard : The abode of men. 

Magne: (M&g-ne) Thor’s son. 

Norn: (N6rn) The Three fates represented as three young 
women. 

Njord: (often spelled Ni-brd pronounced Nee-y6rd) Father of 
Frey and Freyia. 

Odin: (o-din) The fountain head of wisdom. 

Ragnarok: (rag'-na-rek) Twilight of the gods. 

Roskva : (r6sk-va) A peasant girl who went with Thor to Utgard 
Loki’s. 

Sindre, or Sindri: (sin-dre) A dwarf. 

Sif : (Seef) Thor’s wife. 

Suttuug : (supposed to be derived from Sup-tung) The giant who 
obtained the precious wine. 

Sleip-ner: Odin’s horse. 

Skry-mer : (Skry-mer) The giant who met Thor in the forest. 


VOCABULARY. 


Ill 


Tkjal-fe: (Thy'al-fe) A peasant boy who went with Thor to 
Utgard Loki’s. 

Thrym : A giant who stole Thor’s hammer. 

Thor: Thunder-gocl. 

Utgard : The abode of Loki. 

Valhalla : (val-h&l-la) The hall to which Odin took those slain in 
battle. 

Valkyrie: (Val-ky'-rie) Handmaidens of Odin. 

Vafthrudnur: (Vaf-thr6od-neer) A giant visited by Odin. 
Ygdrasil: (ig-dras-il) The world-embracing ash tree. 

























































































































> 



f 













































































